Culture

Can AI shape healthcare in India?

Technology- specifically machine learning- is one of the fastest growing disciplines in the entire world. Can tech be the solution to the world's largest medical problems, even blindness?

Alyshba Ahmed | August 4, 2021

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In India, over 77 million people are afflicted with diabetes. Diabetes is a toilsome condition, leading to conditions such as kidney disease, fatigue, and headaches. However, symptoms like impaired vision- or often blindness- threaten to make a difficult condition even worse. In fact, diabetes is one of the leading causes of blindness in India, where there are over 12 million people affected by the illness. The condition, diabetic retinopathy, can be prevented early on. The problem? Ophthalmologists in India see thousands of patients daily, meaning that many Indians are unable to receive proper care or treatment.

So how can we solve blindness in a country where nearly one-third of the world’s blind population resides? Perhaps A.I. is the solution.

Aravind Eye Hospital in India is one of the most well-known eye hospitals in India. However, the hospital is severely understaffed, having more patients daily than they are able to see. To combat this issue, a machine learning team at Google’s headquarters studies the way artificial intelligence can be applied in the ophthalmology field. The specific form of machine learning used is known as image recognition, similar to the Face IDs used to detect iPhone users and the software used to identify license plates. The team at Google hoped to apply similar software to eyes.

“If you take a picture of the eye, you will see a lot of bleeding spots in the retina,” says Dr. R. Kim, the chief medical officer at Aravind Eye Hospital.

These bleeding spots are indicators of an unhealthy eye. If artificial intelligence could be used to detect these early signs in patients, the number of patients with diabetic retinopathy could be lessened.

Back at Aravind Eye Hospital, doctors utilize the new technology. Patients are seated in an examination chair and images are taken of the left and right eye. Within seconds, doctors and nurses receive a high-resolution x-ray of the eyes. Doctors can then easily identify problem areas within the eyes.

While this optic system is currently most suited towards patients with diabetic retinopathy, it may not end there. Dr. Jessica Mage, the chief medical and scientific officer at Verily, feels that the implications of this technology lie even further. “Even within these images, we're starting to see some interesting signals that might tell us about someone's risk factors for heart disease.” Soon, machine-learning technologies may have the ability to encompass treatments for diseases that formerly seemed incurable, such as cancer, organ diseases, and dementia. If these trends continue, technology may provide solutions to issues beyond human comprehension, revolutionizing modern society as we know it.