India-Singapore AI synergy poised to transform healthcare through data and innovation: AWS VP & Head Healthcare Asia
By Kaushal Verma, New Delhi, February 17
India's vast healthcare data and Singapore's advanced artificial intelligence capabilities are opening new avenues for collaboration that could accelerate innovation and make healthcare technologies more affordable and globally competitive, Karen Priyadarshini, Vice President and Head of Healthcare - Asia at AWS toldtoday.
"Singapore is a small country with a very big AI push, and they have the models that they are building, but they need data to train those models and that's where India comes in," Priyadarshini told ANI in an interview on the sidelines of the "Democratizing AI Resources for Economic Growth and Social Good" event at the India AI Impact Summit.
"India has a population of 1.4 billion, and that means that many data points that you have. And I think that scale nobody on planet Earth has," she said.
Priyadarshini said discussions at the summit and at the AWS Public Sector Summit earlier in the day focused on how technology can help India scale healthcare delivery affordably and enable startups to expand globally. "India is a bed of startups, so how do we enable them to really go global? How can we scale with these technologies? How can we make it affordable?" she said.
She highlighted the potential for research partnerships, particularly in rare diseases. Referring to remarks by the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Authority (NHA), she said India's expanding health data ecosystem could be opened to researchers worldwide.
"We're going to have the scale of data -- what are we going to do with it? We're going to invite researchers," she said, noting that certain rare disease data sets are difficult to assemble outside India.
Priyadarshini described AI as a "technology leveler" in healthcare. "It's not that the U.S. is ahead, it's not that China is ahead. We have amazing startups in India because of the scale of population," she said, adding that markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea are also developing strong solutions.
She said hyperscalers such as AWS can help regional innovators scale securely and responsibly. "AI has lots of bandwidth, and it comes with a package of risk as well," she said, stressing the need for safeguards as adoption accelerates.
— ANI
Reader Comments
Finally, a focus on rare diseases! So many families suffer in silence due to lack of research and diagnosis. If our data can help find cures, it would be a massive service to humanity. Hope the data sharing is done with strict privacy safeguards though.
The potential is huge, but we must be careful. "Inviting researchers worldwide" to access our health data? We need a strong, sovereign data governance framework first. The benefits should flow back to Indian citizens, not just foreign corporations.
Working in tech, I see this as a win-win. Singapore has the infrastructure and regulatory clarity for AI testing. India has the scale. Together, they can create solutions for the Global South that are cost-effective. Exciting times for healthtech startups!
Making healthcare affordable through tech is the need of the hour. If AI can help diagnose diseases early in rural areas where doctors are scarce, it will be a game-changer. Hope the collaboration focuses on real-world implementation, not just research papers.
As someone whose parent has a rare condition, this gives me hope. 🥹 Our diversity means we have genetic data that doesn't exist elsewhere. Let's use it for good, but please ensure informed consent and transparency for every data point used.
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