Artificial Intelligence solutions for screening, diagnosis, and decision support hold a lot of promise to improve access to healthcare and boost productivity and effectiveness of human health resources at all levels. However, it cannot happen automatically. There is a need to put together quality-assured and curated medical imaging datasets that truly represent India’s diversity of people, the settings and needs to realise that promise.
In a new initiative, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have agreed to work together in this direction. As per a memorandum of understanding signed between them, the two institutions will develop a technology-enabled hub-and-spoke system for collecting and curating data through institutions across the country. AI & Robotics Technology Park, a not-for-profit foundation promoted by IISc, will serve as the initiative’s partner for technology development and programme management.
By leveraging premier medical institutions as hubs and bringing together medicine and data science experts, the team driving this initiative will seek to standardise data collection from many “spoke” institutions. It will also help curate that data and aim to make it available to the broader community of researchers and innovators, in accordance with applicable policies and laws.
Speaking about the initiative, Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director, IISc, said, “Our goal is to bring together the best of technology, data science, and medical research to improve healthcare. This partnership with ICMR will enable us to do exactly that by catalysing invaluable datasets to propel the next generation of innovations for India and the world.” (ISW)
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