Andhra Pradesh partnering with Gates Foundation to drive AI-led healthcare reforms: Health Minister

Andhra Pradesh is initiating comprehensive reforms in public healthcare with technical support from the Gates Foundation, Minister for Health Satya Kumar Yadav said.

In a statement on Sunday (February 15), the Minister said the partnership aligns with the vision of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to achieve the ‘Healthy Andhra Pradesh’ goal and said that the Foundation’s co-founder Bill Gates is scheduled to visit Amaravati on Monday (February 16) to review the State’s ongoing initiatives and discuss future action plans.

Mr. Satya Kumar said the primary aim of the collaboration is to ensure universal access to affordable healthcare through modern technology and systemic reforms, to improve nutritional security and public health outcomes, to achieve scalable solutions and to shift from a reactive treatment-based model to a preventive, predictive healthcare approach.

He said the government plans to introduce early disease detection systems, personalised health profiling, advance warning mechanisms for potential illnesses, individual health cards and expanded digital health services, including telemedicine.

The Minister said based on the Foundation’s recommendation, the State had constituted a high-power expert advisory group comprising 10 international experts to review existing healthcare systems and recommend reforms. Three sub-committees are being formed to focus on specific areas, he informed.

‘Sanjeevani’ initiative

An integrated, real-time health monitoring initiative called ‘Sanjeevani’ has been launched in collaboration with Tata MD, he said, adding that the pilot project, which began in Kuppam, has been expanded across Chittoor district and will soon be implemented statewide. “The programme integrates various health centres through technology to strengthen real-time public health surveillance and response,” he explained.

He said the State is also taking concrete steps to introduce Artificial Intelligence-based technologies in healthcare services. Discussions on formulating a national AI-based health policy were initiated in Vijayawada last December in partnership with the Gates Foundation and representatives from other States, he said.

The Minister said that with support from the Foundation, the government launched a ‘MedTech Challenge’ to identify AI-enabled medical devices and solutions. “Around 100 applicants participated and, after two rounds of screening, 20 were shortlisted, he said, adding that their technologies were being tested in government hospitals under a pilot programme and a final decision will be taken by the end of March.

He said the focus areas included AI-based diagnostic tests, portable point-of-care testing centres, smart monitoring and wearable devices, telemedicine tools for remote areas and data integration and disease surveillance. He said health data collected from various sources will be integrated with the RTGS “Aware” platform to enable early detection of disease outbreaks and data-driven policy formulation.

He said the Foundation is also supporting the establishment of a Digital Modelling and Intelligence Decision Centre (DMIDC) at Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences to strengthen data analytics and strategic health planning.