AI in Healthcare: How Indian apps and platforms aim to transform healthcare using technology

Bringing together the best of both worlds, the emphasis on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare is increasing with each passing day. While it has been brewing for the last few years, its role has changed after the effects of the Covid-19 shook the world. The pandemic taught the world the importance of taking care of their health, and the need for more focus on their food, habits, and regular checkups, now more than ever before. This has led to the rise of healthcare platforms and applications catering to different kinds of needs not limited to weight loss anymore but extended to more diseases, as well as aiding medical professionals carry out healthcare effectively.

Being in the midst of it all, Dr Amit Kharat, radiologist, CEO and co-founder of Deeptek.ai observes, "One notable observation is the shift in perception regarding AI in healthcare. Previously considered a futuristic luxury, AI is now emerging as a necessity to ensure equitable healthcare access."

In fact, Dr Arbinder Singal, co-founder and CEO of Fitterfly, believes it was the need of the hour. He explains, "Healthcare has so many gaps today in terms of availability of people to serve the patients and personalised insights, and as simple as how do you make people understand where their health is today, which is like health assessment, risk assessment, risk calculators - they are broadly missing." Though there is a lot of data available from trackers, blood tests, doctors' consultations, he believes there is no AI engine which is putting this together and giving the patients a glimpse of where they are and where they ideally should be and how they can improve their health with the various things available in the healthcare ecosystem. However, there are many like Deeptek.ai and FItterfly that are working on either side of the healthcare system - with the patient in mind, while using AI to make everybody's life easier.

There is no better time than the post-pandemic world to highlight how artificial intelligence can help patients and healthcare professionals in treatment. At the heart of it, Singal is honest to admit that even as a doctor, he doesn't remember the diagnosis, the medications, and the differential diagnoses, when a person comes with a clinical condition but that is only because there is so much out there. "There is too much data to process, which is not possible by the human mind. Now, AI can help with all these things and see where the patient is, where they should be, and how they can improve their health, and the right journey of the patient can be planned."

Role of AI in weight loss programmes
While this started pre-pandemic with basic diet plans, even that has seen a change and Fitelo has been in the midst of it. Started in 2019 by Sahil Bansal and Mehakdeep Singh owing to their personal experience with obesity, it aims to help people with their weight loss journey. The application has been using AI to undertake proactive measures through lifestyle and dietary modifications, thereby preventing and dealing with health conditions well in advance. It is because Sahil Bansal, co-founder and CEO, says, "As the health and wellness landscape is transforming with the integration of AI, there has been an increase in the demand for personalised and data-driven approaches in wellness programmes."

With a combination of technology and health, they have been constantly working towards enhancing the user experience and outcomes, by specifically refining their algorithms to better match coaches with dietitians based on the unique needs of each client. While the app uses AI, as it continues to gain ground in the health and wellness industry, Bansal says they do not want to ignore the human touch, but rather use AI with HI (Human Intelligence) to provide long-term sustainable help to people battling weight loss. So, they use an integrated approach where data-driven insights from AI are coupled with their team of experts' guidance to figure out the best possible solution for the user's weight loss through nutrition and fitness routines.

The recent focus on health has led to an interesting observation, that even made the app tweak their offerings. Bansal explains, "We are witnessing a trend among mothers being increasingly conscious about their family's health and seeking diet plans for their children and husbands as well. Family plans are a unique way for all the members to start their health journey together and get motivated through each other. This not only allows them to fulfil their health goals but also lead a healthy lifestyle collectively." This led them to introduce ‘Family Diet plans', wherein a certified dietician consults the family to understand every individual's nutrient requirement and provides a customised plan for each family member to easily fit into the daily routine. The plan, he says, not only helps every individual enjoy their exercise routine but also aids them with dance and yoga sessions. Since they introduced the new plan, the co-founder says they have catered to over 250 families between October 2023 and December 2023 till now.

Other than mother's looking out for their family's health, Bansal says the last one year has also made them see an increase in the demand for weight management plans. Based on their study, the app released a ‘State of Your Plate' report which indicated that 58 per cent individuals are most concerned about their weight when the size of their clothes increases, while 46 per cent reconsider their eating habits after casual remarks on their body weight by family and friends. Women are more concerned with 61 per cent expressing serious concern about their weight. The report revealed that 78 per cent of individuals are looking to take up a health plan in the near future. It is only the start because they are also seeing more people opt for disease management plans, largely with those battling diabetes, thyroid, PCOS and PCOD. Beyond that, individuals are also keen to opt for add-on services including dance, yoga, exercise, and mind coaching.

AI for diabetes, obesity, and heart health
The rise in the people looking for help to deal with diabetes is probably where Fitterfly found their calling. With a focus on the disease, along with obesity, they help patients manage their clinical outcomes. It comes from a very personal place. Being diagnosed as a pre-diabetic, Singal started the health tech startup with Shailesh Gupta, who is also the COO, to help other diabetics. With over 20 years of experience in the field, Singal has seen the gap in the treatment of diabetes, and the last one year since the AI boom, he has made an important observation. He explains, "If you look at the problem of conditions like diabetes, a lot of patients do not get day- to-day support, they go to the doctor every 3 - 6 months, they take their medication and then take their blood test. But the first step in the line of therapy towards managing diabetes should be lifestyle management and that too very personalised and engaging."

It is how they built a platform called Personalised Glycemic Response, where patients can understand how blood sugars are getting affected by different food. They use a CGM with the help of their large nutrition database, aided by AI to calculate the glycemic response, which is the rise in blood sugar after every meal. "We also have psychologists who understand the stress and sleep patterns and give cognitive behavioural therapy for lowering your stress and improving your pain management. We realised that a lot of people with diabetes will have knee pain, shoulder pain, back pain, and hip pain, which limits their mobility. We can manage all this by using digital therapy and coaching to manage the outcome," he adds.

With the app, Singal wants to bridge this gap and provide essential healthcare with a 360-degree approach. As they continue to work on the services using AI, they have seen patients want more in the last one year. He explains, "We realised that patients want a synchronised coaching and lot of continuous insights and engagement features. So, we launched virtual CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitors). Now, when patients use the CGM device and its correlation device with food, even when they don't have the device with them, it will show how much their blood sugar will potentially rise, with the help of the AI algorithm that is built in house." They also built an AI nutrition coach, which just went live in the Fitterfly app. "It has the potential of analysing a meal, answering your questions like a dietician, and also coaching you on losing weight or managing your diabetes," he adds.

One of the things Singal and his team are working on strengthening is AI-led coaching, which hopes to be as good as a human health expert. It is currently called JADI on the app, and it is available 24x7, but they want to bring more things into it like personalisation and accurate coaching. He adds, "We are also working on predicting risk, and predicting the effect of medication and how much they will benefit one person. We are also building AI around risk of progression and which medications will suit which kind of patients, in the near future." Beyond diabetes and obesity in 2024, they are also building a Hearth Health programme, as a lot of Indians have heart diseases. "If we can quantify the heart disease risks, and decrease the risk of myocardial infarction or heart attacks, and help people lower their heart age, and decrease their heart risks, it would be the way forward," he says resolutely.

AI to help radiology
On the other hand, Kharat wanted to harness the potential of artificial intelligence to aid radiology, as it faces one of the biggest challenges in India right now, according to him. He explains, "The shortage of radiologists in India, with just one serving every 1,00,000 people, is a critical issue addressed by the integration of AI. AI serves as a virtual assistant in radiology, aiding in diagnosis, reducing the workload of radiologists, and contributing to precision medicine. The impact of AI goes beyond image analysis. By automating workflows and generating smart reports, AI alleviates the burden on healthcare professionals, potentially reducing burnout and allowing more time for patient care." Kharat, who started the Pune-based AI-radiology startup with his business partner Ajit Patil in 2017, says its use in existing workflows and training various healthcare stakeholders - not only limited to radiologists, but also technologists, administrators, and physicians, highlights the holistic approach needed for effective implementation.

This led them to create Augmento, A radiology AI deployment platform, which is a US FDA-cleared solution. "The platform stands out with its seamless optimisation of the radiology workflow, leveraging cutting-edge AI technology and Smart Reporting to enhance both productivity and quality. A distinctive feature of Augmento is its vendor-neutral approach, allowing easy integration of any third-party AI model into existing workflows."

Apart from India, it is currently being used by several hospitals in Singapore, apart from Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Nigeria, Kenya, and several other countries, and across 500 hospitals and imaging centres in APAC, and is soon going to expand to the US. With the decision-making processes often questioned, Kharat says the suite of features also has an interactive interface for studying and fine-tuning AI thresholds, ensuring effective post-deployment surveillance.

So, where does the platform fit into daily life, especially at the hospital since it is a platform for radiologists? He explains, "Picture a radiology department free from the burden of endless image queues. The AI-powered worklist prioritisation platform revolutionises workflows with its intelligence. Incoming scans - X-rays, CTs, and more - are sorted effortlessly: critical cases leap to the top for immediate attention and abnormalities are pinpointed with AI precision."

This isn't just about speed, says Kharat, it is also about focus. The platform acts as a virtual assistant when it comes to freeing up senior radiologists to tackle complex cases while streamlining the overall workload. The AI engine also helps scrutinise each image to highlight potential fractures, tumours, or lung nodules with accuracy. Last but not the last, it helps to also generate reports without a fuss, with an in-built communication platform that allows everyone involved to collaborate and save time with the final report.

With the steady progress of their platform, come 2024, they are going to be focusing on precision-driven AI models to help provide highly reliable diagnoses and insights to healthcare professionals, become a responsible AI platform by mitigating actively developing strategies for detecting and mitigating biases in its algorithms to ensure fairness in outcomes irrespective of the patient's background, and voice-activated radiology solutions to aid radiologists in their processes as they have the liberty of voice-recognition commands as AI shapes the future of healthcare.