were starting their pitch with the phrase “We
want to be the Uber of…”! This hectic pace of
disruptions is a result of the rapid advances
we are making in creating new knowledge.
In the book Critical Path, futurist and inventor
Buckminster Fuller estimated that if we
took all the knowledge that mankind had
accumulated and transmitted by the year
one CE as equal to one unit of knowledge,
it probably took about 1500 years until the
16th century for that amount of knowledge
to double. The next doubling of knowledge
from two to four units was completed in 250
years by the mid-18th century. By the turn
of the 20th century, 150 years later, human
knowledge had doubled again to eight units.
The speed at which knowledge doubled was
getting faster and faster. The doubling speed
is now estimated between one and two years.
All this new knowledge is being put into good
use. Labelled data and analytics are powering
the recent advances in AI.
AI is now getting deeper into what was so
far specialist human domains. Let us look at
a 21st century example. Real-time image-
guided and robot-assisted surgery where
imaging coupled with robotic assistance
helps in assessing the area of procedure,
monitoring the tools in 3D and updating
pathophysiology knowledge of the targeted
tissue in real-time. This innovation is at the
intersection of AI, robotics, biotechnology,
telecommunication and clinical domain. A
few months back, expert doctors successfully
directed surgeons 200 km away in a remote
area in China to perform a gall bladder
surgery using 5G network. This innovation
opens new healthcare delivery models at very
different price points. There are many more
such innovations at the edge and intersections
emerging and defining the 21st century.
I am impressed with Indian start-ups working
at the intersection of healthcare and new
technology like AI. Let me provide a snapshot
of Indian healthcare and innovative start-ups
26
in this sector. India has about 0.6 doctors
per 1000 people. The WHO recommended
ratio is 2 doctors per 1000 people. China
has a ratio of 1.5 and the USA a ratio of
2.5. Reaching the WHO recommended
ratio translates into creating 2 million more
doctors, assuming our population does not
increase. India currently graduates about
70,000 doctors a year. We are running out
of time. While India ramps up the number
of doctors, we need to leverage technology
to improve the throughput of doctor visits,
medical tests and medical procedures.
Indian AI/ML healthcare start-ups are solving
important problems in healthcare that not
only are relevant for India, but also for the
world at large. Two examples are Niramai
and Sigtuple.
Niramai’s AI/ML platform is a low cost,
accurate, automated, portable breast cancer
screening tool that can be operated by
medical support staff. The core technology is
an AI/ML led diagnostic platform that uses
patented thermal image processing and
machine learning algorithms for reliable and
accurate breast cancer screening. This can be
used as a cancer diagnosis test in hospitals,
used for regular preventive health check-ups,
and also for large scale screening in rural
and semi-urban areas.
Sigtuple is building an AI/ ML platform to
provide healthcare solutions by detecting
different diseases. The platform analyses
medical images and data from peripheral
blood smears, urine microscopy, optical
coherence tomography scans and chest X-rays
to aid diagnosis. Solutions like Sigtuple’s that
can aid diagnosis increases the productivity
of doctors, translates into more time for
doctors to attend to in-need patients. It also
reduces the time taken to prepare diagnostic
results and provides the ability for stepwise
screening of patients to prevent an overload
on the existing diagnostic infrastructure in
India. Of course, we should take care that
we follow ethical standards including aspects