The use of digital technologies in healthcare services and research is not new; however, with the rise of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, we are seeing a new wave of digital transformation and how these smart technologies can further prospects within healthcare provision and research. Especially after the pandemic, digital tools have shown us new paths within healthcare both in India and Germany, and its significance is, arguably, only growing.
These topics were discussed in our recent Indo-German Business Talk recorded on 31 May with expert panellists Dr Sandra Barteit, Research Group Leader, Digital Global Health, Heidelberg Institute for Global Health; Jan Beger, Senior Director Digital Ecosystem, GE Healthcare; Jibu Elias, Chief Architect and Research & Content Head, INDIAai and Resham Sethi, Country Liaison Officer India, International Digital Health & AI Research Collaboration (I-DAIR).
It is not about AI replacing the healthcare professional or the medical doctor, what we really see is when healthcare professionals use AI the outcomes are better versus healthcare professionals not using AI. It’s really joining forces between the expert human being and this technology that’s going to make patient outcomes improve.
Jan Beger, Senior Director Digital Ecosystem, GE Healthcare
The conversation stimulated interesting discussions regarding the necessity to sometimes take a step back and look at the topic from a beginner’s level where all individuals are educated and included in the use of digital tools within healthcare; with the needed intention of closing the literacy and digital divide. Further topics of discussion investigated the importance of collecting accurate data to train language models and the ethics and governance of using digital technologies in healthcare.
India is a very classic example of an amazing disparity that exists. At one hand we have extremely great technologies that a certain segment of the people have access to; but we also cannot forgot that we do have more than 60% of our population living in the rural and tribal areas, where accessibility to healthcare services, the quality of provision of healthcare services, affordability, is a major barrier.
Resham Sethi, Country Liaison Officer India, International Digital Health & AI Research Collaboration (I-DAIR)
There is a question of where to use AI and where not to use AI, that has to come from the public trust. Because of the lack of digital literacy, the whole debate of AI and trust is not in the public domain yet. You have to bring these ideas into the discourse and then you have to solve it.
Jibu Elias, Chief Architect and Research & Content Head, INDIAai
It’s very important to make sure we have good data and it starts with the data collectors; so educating people why it is important that we have accurate data because we want to build those systems and if the data is not an accurate presentation of the reality that exists, then our models will also be not good.
Dr Sandra Barteit, Research Group Leader, Digital Global Health, Heidelberg Institute for Global Health
Our key takeaway from the Webinar was that despite the technological overload and fatigue we have encountered over the past few months with the rise of these emerging technologies, it is more important that ever to look outside the box to ensure these technologies are applied in the correct scenarios with the involvement and education of all. What are your thoughts? The entire stream can be watched via YouTube (see below), where you can also leave your comments.
The Indo-German Business Talk is a monthly webinar, free to Panelists and audience members. Subscribe to our Mailing List to be informed of future discussions.