Using artificial intelligence on health records could help predict ailments

HYDERABAD: The Indian technology industry views that application of machine learning to health records can help predict body ailments and also discover a lot of health solutions, according to industry leaders. While the machine learning has been used to curb outbreak of disease like Ebola in India and in disaster management earlier, the scope of its application is still limited and more research needs to be conducted, feel experts.

Speaking at the TIE-ISB Connect 2017 in Hyderabad, Suman Reddy Eadunuri, managing director and country head, Pegasystems, said, “If lots of health data is available, there is a potential to discover a lot of health solutions by applying machine learning and analytics,.”

Similarly, machine learning can be used to predict of spread of diseases. “During the Ebola breakout, analysts through machine learning helped curb the spread of the disease other than predicting the spread of it,” said Arijit Sarker, vice-president, global campaign operations at tech major Google.

However, the scope of its usage is limited as of now. Reddy of Pega feels that usage of machine learning in healthcare needs more research and very preliminary work is being done currently. Also, “the recent Supreme Court judgement on privacy will have some impact on the usage of data by companies,” he added.