Aster DM Healthcare, Intel, CARPL to develop AI-enabled health tech solutions

Bengaluru: Aster Innovation and Research Centre, the innovation hub of Aster DM Healthcare, has joined hands with Intel Corporation, and CARPL to announce a state-of-the-art 'Secure Federated Learning Platform.' This collaboration will enable the development of AI-enabled health tech solutions where data can securely reside where it is generated.

The collaboration will boost innovation in areas such as drug discovery, diagnosis, genomics, and predictive healthcare. It will also allow clinical trials to access relevant data sets in a secure and distributed manner.

A single patient generates nearly 80 MB of data annually in imaging and EMR data; according to 2017 estimates, RBC Capital Market projects that "by 2025, the compound annual growth rate of data for healthcare will reach 36%. Genomic data alone is predicted to be 2–40 exabytes by 2025—eclipsing the amount of data acquired by all other technological platforms."

AI-enabled solutions in areas such as medical imaging are helping address pressing challenges in healthcare such as staff shortages and aging populations.

However, accessing silos of relevant data spread across the different hospitals, geographies, and other health systems while complying with regulatory policies is a massive challenge.

Commenting on this first-of-its-kind collaboration, Dr Azad Moopen, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, said, "Aster Innovation and Research Centre is glad to partner with technology giants like CARPL and Intel to bring highly progressive healthcare solutions through digital advances and Artificial Intelligence. The Secure Federated Learning initiative will help analyse data and support the development of a predictive mechanism for patients, the opportunity for a second opinion on treatments, and most importantly, affirming data security and confidentiality of patients. So far, only a few such initiatives have been conducted especially in the healthcare space. This collaborative platform with world leaders will open doors to many players in the sector to participate in developing accessible healthcare solutions."

The Intel Foundry Services, Country Head, Intel India and Vice President, Nivruti Rai said, "AI applications are on the cusp of revolutionizing healthcare through timely and effective screening, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Getting access to high quality training datasets and addressing limitations in the form of regulatory frameworks and geographic boundaries are critical imperatives. I am happy to announce that Aster and Intel have collaborated to address these challenges and deployed a first-of-its-kind Secure Federated Learning Platform in India. It offers a real-world solution by addressing key aspects like security, trust and confidentiality for optimal use of data."

The CARPL Chief Executive Officer Dr Vidur Mahajan said, "There is no doubt that de-centralised data storage and subsequent training of AI models in a federated manner is the future, especially since lack of generalisability of AI is becoming a bigger problem. We are glad to partner with brands that are doyens of their respective fields."