In India, there is an estimated 900,000 practicing Allopathic Doctors. And yet, there’s only 1 doctor for every 1668 people to access. To worsen the problem, close to 75% of the doctors practice at urban agglomerate servicing only 28% population. This leaves an almost near zero cover for 76% of the Indian population, which is largely rural. The few doctors who practice in rural India have limited capabilities for managing a diverse range of symptoms.

Take for example a very common symptom – chest pain. There is scientific evidence that there exists an excess of 100 plus reasons for chest pain ranging from pain in the epigastric region to a rib cage fracture that radiates upward and sideward. However, of all the forms of pain, the most fatal is the chest pain radiating from the heart.

On an average of 8-10 times, doctors misdiagnose – due to lack of efficiency in diagnostic medical boxes and seldom access to primary care doctors. In recent times, several startups have successfully tailored medical diagnosis and preventative measures to digital platforms.

One of the well-established startup is Tricog, which has leveraged existing IoT 2G/3G/WiFi networks aided by cloud connected ECG machines and in-built algorithms that receive, interpret and send back analysis. Co-Founder Zainul says, Tricog has created network of 1000 remote ECG diagnosis points at clinics and hospitals and, stores close to a million real world ECGs consisting of over 200 cardiac conditions, 45% being normal and 4% being critical cases. The efficacy of the human-AI based platform has been the key in creating this impact.

National Statistics says that more than 70% of both urban and rural populations seek access to care in “Private Health Infrastructure”. What this means is that a rural patient spends as much time and money in accessing care as he does in availing treatment for his disease. Can AI come in and solve this?

BIO

pwc india artificial intelligence healthcare medicineDr Vijay Raaghavan – Associate Director, PwC Healthcare’s south India practice

Let me do away with the usual style of using the third person narration style. I am a homosapien who seeks and derives inspiration from broad range of scintillating things that happen around me- be it some exceptional work of a team , an engaging art, distinctively designed product, success & extraordinary contribution of others or be it something as unusual as watching the path a bird flying from its take off till it disappears .Firmly believe that “life is a magic” and each one of us have a fair share to make it magical for all .Attempt my best to capture all that fascinates & inspires me through my posts that usually carry the tag #lifeisamagic or #futureofuture.

At PwC, I anchor the healthcare practice for the South of India and work closely with the firm’s leaders & young minds in helping organisations like GE, Apollo,Khazanah,Roche – chart their transformation path to helping startups -define , incubate & bring to life their business value proposition to the market. The most exciting part of my work is the learnings I have when I exchange notes with budding startups, next generation healthcare entrepreneurs to entrepreneurs who built firms that have lasted a century.

I am particularly excited about the evolving healthcare market models around Digital -AI, Platform, AR,VR, Crypto, Blockchain , Opportunities around Customers to Business (C2B) ,and their amalgamation with traditional brick & mortar models.