Helps Make Quicker Diagnosis: Apollo Hospitals Founder On AI In Healthcare

Dr Prathap Reddy, the 93-year-old founder of Apollo Hospitals and the man widely credited with pioneering corporate healthcare in India, believes the country's doctors must embrace artificial intelligence without reservation.

Speaking to NDTV's CEO and Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal, Dr Reddy said the hospital group's new ZAP-X system, which combines advanced radiation technology with artificial intelligence to treat cancers of the head and neck, is an example of what this new era of medicine looks like in practice. 

"I think this is one of the latest combinations of high-tech technology along with AI," he said. "It is to treat cancers of the head and neck. People who had absolutely no home have all been treated and have completely recovered. I think we must make full use of AI technology to get whatever we can because you can make a more precise diagnosis, make the machine work faster." 

"Using AI, you get more, deeper information plus the time that is saved. So even for a doctor, it makes the diagnosis faster and you can use more time with the patient," he added. "We need AI, we will use AI and the doctor must be able to use the full capability of AI to make an ultimate diagnosis and give the patient better care than what he was given before and probably in a shorter time."

Born in Aragonda village in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district, Dr Reddy is credited of founding India's first corporate chain of hospitals in 1983. Now, after over four decades. Apollo Hospitals have a network of over 70 owned and managed hospitals.

Dr Reddy reflected on more than four decades in Indian healthcare and what still brings a 93-year-old to work every morning. 

"What more can we do for the patients? That is what keeps me going," he said. 

Dr Reddy added that he took pride in how far Indian private healthcare had come -- not just for domestic patients but for the growing number of people travelling to India from abroad for treatment.

"I am happy that we have done so much," he said. "We have transformed healthcare. Today, it is not just Indians; you can see foreign patients coming to India. More than 150 countries' patients come here for care. I think this is why we have done so much in curative care."