AI-Powered Early Disease Screening: Google Collaborates With Apollo (Image: Google)

In a significant move towards enhancing the healthcare sector in India, Google has announced a partnership with Apollo Radiology International to use artificial intelligence (AI) for early disease detection. Under this partnership, Apollo will use Google AI models to provide 3 million free AI-powered screenings for tuberculosis, lung, and breast cancer over the next 10 years.

In a blog post, Google mentioned that AI technology can play a tremendous role in the early detection of certain diseases. According to Google, radiology is one area where expertise is critical to patient outcomes. However, the tech giant noted that there are not always enough radiologists to meet patients’ needs, and AI will be helpful in this situation.

Google said in its blog post that more than 10 million people annually become ill with tuberculosis (TB), and more than 1.3 million die from the disease worldwide each year. South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are witnessing more tuberculosis cases. Chest X-rays are a common method of screening for the disease. However, Google said that there are not enough trained radiologists to interpret images at scale.

“To help, we’ve developed an AI system to interpret chest X-ray scans for early signs of TB,” added the tech giant. Similarly, lung cancer and breast cancer also require specialised screening and medical expertise. AI-powered solutions offered by Google are expected to make screening more broadly accessible. “Today, we continue to collaborate with Apollo as it works towards securing regulatory approvals to bring these models into clinical care in communities across India,” said Google.

This collaboration is likely to improve health outcomes for people in the country by providing faster disease screening using AI technology.