India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre Partners with Directorate of Health Services Jammu

Enhancing its efforts toward early detection of Lung diseases, India-Sweden healthcare Innovation Centre and its knowledge partner AstraZeneca India collaborated with the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) Jammu to integrate Qure.ai’s smart artificial intelligent technology to detect lung cancer early on.

Under the aegis of Indo Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre (ISHIC), Qure.ai is scaling-up the integration of its AI-powered chest x-ray interpretation tool that can benefit early and easy detection of lung diseases including lung cancer. The collaboration with DHS Jammu is a significant example of how technology can be leveraged and simply integrated in the primary healthcare settings. Cecilia Oskarsson, Swedish Trade Commissioner to India said, “Innovation is critical to address the healthcare challenges in the country and we at India-Sweden healthcare innovation centre are working towards a mission to support these innovative solutions. We are delighted to initiate this first project in Jammu towards early screening and diagnosis of lung diseases in the state. We look forward to supporting the start-up ecosystem and the states towards building an innovative ecosystem in the country.”

Dr. Sanjeev Panchal, Country President and Managing Director, AstraZeneca India said, “We celebrate the progress that has been made in cancer care, including advances in screening, the development of innovative therapies, greater public-private collaboration and increased prioritisation of health equity. As a global cancer community, we have many reasons to be optimistic about the future. We are moving ever closer to achieving our ambition – eliminating cancer as a cause of death.”

The AI powered chest X-ray is designed to distinguish lung nodules in under a minute and minimise the chances of lung cancers going undetected. Importantly, this tool is being accessed in primary care setting where x-rays are utilised most commonly. Commenting on the technological advantage of the solution, Prashant Warier, CEO Qure.ai said, “Our mission is to use AI to make healthcare more accessible and affordable. Our machine-based learning tools are enhancing the analysis of simpler diagnosis tools such as x-rays, ultrasounds to catch serious diseases at very early stages that significantly reduces the mortality rates. AstraZeneca has helped us spread our offering across the world that has led to approximately 170,000 scans in 25 countries, with high malignancy risk lung nodules identified in 1.6% of scans. Today we are tapping further into technology to enable faster diagnosis and speedy treatments.”

In 2020, there were an estimated 18.1 million cancer cases worldwide with Lung Cancer being the second most common form of the disease. The constant increase in the incidence of lung cancer highlighted the need for healthcare organisation around the world to come together, collaborate and innovate the way lung cancer was addressed. In India, ISHIC-a tri-part collaboration with AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur and Business Sweden with AstraZeneca and NASSCOM as the knowledge partner was formed to fortify the healthcare ecosystem by identifying, mentoring and integrating some of the smart and best-in-class healthcare solutions, in alignment with the health priorities of the country. To date, the centre has mentored over 37 promising start-ups that can enhance the way healthcare is accessed and delivered.

The India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is a tripartite collaboration between AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur and Swedish Trade Commissioner’s office. The platform is envisioned to develop an ecosystem of open innovation that start-ups and the healthcare delivery stakeholders can use to collaborate and address current and future challenges in the healthcare sector in India. This platform will enable development and scale up of solutions through frugal innovation for affordable and accessible healthcare in line with the objectives of the Government of India