National Health Authority and IIT Kanpur Sign MoU for AI-Enabled Healthcare Digital Public Goods

Nitin Konde, Varun Bhardwaj

Sep 13, 2024 — 3 min read

NHA & IIT Kanpur Sign MoU for AI-enabled healthcare

In the presence of Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra, the National Health Authority (NHA) and IIT Kanpur signed an MoU on 11 September 2024. Both the Director of IIT Kanpur, Prof. Manindra Agrawal, and L. S. Changsan, Additional Secretary of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and CEO of NHA, signed the MoU.

A consent management system for research under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) will be developed by IIT Kanpur as part of this MoU. The platform will include a quality-preserving database, an open benchmarking platform for comparing and validating AI models, and a federated learning platform across various machine learning model pipelines. After that, NHA will run and oversee the platform, releasing AI's vast potential to improve health outcomes.

At the event, Apurva Chandra praised the NHA and IIT Kanpur for signing the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission's crucial MoU, which would establish a public, open benchmarking platform for evaluating and certifying AI models.

Applauding this development, Davinder Bhasin, Founder & Managing Director, One Health Assist stated, "This is a pivotal step as the healthcare industry is on the brink of a digital revolution. Therefore, such strategic partnerships will not only play a crucial role in driving that transformation but will indeed enhance the entire ecosystem. AI-powered solutions do hold the potential to radically change healthcare delivery, making it more efficient, precise, and patient-centric."

"By tackling the pressing challenges of India's healthcare system, particularly in rural and underserved regions, AI can bridge critical gaps in diagnostics and treatment. This collaboration will empower both the public and private sectors to unite in building a more inclusive and equitable healthcare infrastructure," he added further.

How This Mou Could Be a Game Changer

The alliance aims to use data in order to improve health outcomes. Using the ABDM's data, it will provide a public standard for artificial intelligence models used in disease quantification and diagnosis.

In order to clarify this further, Chandra said that this partnership will address one of the most pressing problems with AI models in healthcare: the accessibility and accuracy of disease diagnostic data. More accurate diagnoses and better patient outcomes are possible when trustworthy data is readily available in a clinical context.

Researchers will have access to high-quality data and a platform to collaborate with other stakeholders of the health ecosystem through this partnership, which is a huge step forward in using AI for healthcare in India. The partnership will also ensure that all data privacy concerns are addressed. Additionally, it will accelerate the creation of AI-driven healthcare solutions that tackle important health issues.

As Changsan put it, this MoU will use artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to fortify digital public health infrastructure, setting a new standard for digital public health commodities.

Use of This Platform Will Have Several Advantages

Consumers will have more faith in AI models used in healthcare applications if this platform lets their providers do real out-of-set validation and sets publicly verifiable performance standards. Researchers will have an easier time accessing and analysing health data on the platform, which will solve the problem of data fragmentation in our nation. This is all while the data remains in the possession of data fiduciaries. Without sacrificing transparency or innovation, this platform will safeguard healthcare data—which is notoriously expensive to acquire—from statistical dredging.