Doctors utilising AI could save millions of lives: Manipal Hospitals chairman Sudarshan Ballal at THE WEEK Health Summit 2024

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing rapidly, raising the question: How much can it transform traditional healthcare models into more efficient systems? At the forefront of this discussion is whether AI has the potential to prevent millions of deaths.

“Doctors utilising AI could save millions of lives,” Dr Sudarshan Ballal, chairman of the Manipal Hospitals, said underlining the difference. AI could be a better tool for doctors in managing health care. “AI solutions need to be accessible, affordable, and superior to conventional methods to truly transform healthcare.”

He was participating in THE WEEK Health Summit held in Delhi. The panel discussion moderated by Riyad Mathew, chief associate editor and Director, THE WEEK, set in motion an engaging discussion over the use of AI in the healthcare sector and the future of hospitals.

Dr Randeep Guleria, Chairman, internal medicine, Medanta, and whom everyone looked upto during the pandemic when he was the director of AIIMS, argued that AI can't replace the fundamental patient-doctor interaction, which was a blend of art and science. “Empathy and understanding remain essential,” he said.

Guleria said that AI can help avoid errors, manage drug interactions, and enhance areas like radiology by identifying patterns, especially in diseases like tuberculosis, where time and resources are limited.

Alisha Moopen, MD at Aster DM Healthcare GCC, said the AI was helping ease the biggest pain point for the patients - the administrative part of seeking healthcare. She said AI can streamline patient care, reducing wait times and managing resources efficiently to improve patient experience.

“Technology helps in fast-tracking the healthcare journey, effectively utilising resources available to help the patients, so that they don't have to wait for hours to get care. AI can solve the bottleneck using technology and tools.”

She predicts a significant AI-driven shift in primary care, enabling the management of chronic diseases like hypertension through real-time data analysis from wearable devices. On the question about the use of AI, Guleria acknowledged that healthcare professionals are often slower to adopt technology compared to other fields. He called for breaking down siloes to integrate AI into practice.

Dr Ballal warned that without embracing technological advancements, traditional healthcare may lag. He envisions future hospitals evolving from brick-and-mortar establishments to more technology-driven spaces. He emphasised the importance of primary care in India, aiming to prevent diseases such as diarrhoea, which affect populations more than other illnesses.

Both Dr Ballal and Guleria highlighted that AI's success hinges on authentic, high-quality data and its application in disease prediction, management and containment. The pandemic underscored the need for advanced surveillance systems, with AI-driven insights aiding in better pandemic preparedness.

To a poser on lessons from the pandemic and the emergence of AI, Dr Ballal said we are much prepared in predicting, managing, and getting over the pandemic. We need not rush to the hospital for everything. It can be managed at home, that's what we learnt from the pandemic by using monitoring devices.

Guleria hit the nail on its head when he said the key to using AI in predicting the pandemic was the authenticity of data collected at the local and international levels. Citing the example of Wuhan, Guleria said had there been less silence over the data, the Covid pandemic could have been contained there locally.