MUMBAI - When we think of artificial intelligence (AI), we think of richer countries. After all, it takes a lot of money, expertise, and resources to research and create AI for different purposes. Despite this, when it comes to its uses, the nations that AI is set to revolutionize the most, are the poorer ones. Take the case of healthcare. In richer nations where AI has been deployed, it has drastically bettered the service and delivery of healthcare services to the population. Yet where it could revolutionize rather than merely better it, are parts of the world with bad medical infrastructure, like rural India.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report cited the fact that, for every 1000 of the people of rural India, there are only 0.45 doctors available. It is worse in many other parts of the world, like Africa. And this is just talking of doctors. When it comes to other medical facilities like diagnostic centers, specialist equipment, and specialist doctors, the situation is worse. Something drastic needs to be done for these parts. AI could be the solution. The argument for that isn’t just where it will transform healthcare in India, i.e., diagnosis and recommendation, database management and analysis, and patient-facing applications like chatbots; the argument for it is also cost-effectiveness.  

Diagnosis and Recommendation

Because of the costs involved in traveling to a place where a proper diagnosis is available and the loss of daily wage revenue if they don’t work, most of rural India ignores symptoms or gets treated by quacks hoping the disease markers will go away. This often leads to their underlying conditions getting worse, thus needing more and longer treatment.

AI has already begun deployment in rural areas thanks to government patronage and