AI tool in national disease surveillance helped issue over 5,000 alerts to health authorities: Data

Economic Times
Economic Times
46m ago 1 view
An AI tool has issued over 5,000 alerts to health authorities in India since 2022, enhancing disease surveillance. This innovation significantly reduces manual workload and improves outbreak detection.
AI tool in national disease surveillance helped issue over 5,000 alerts to health authorities: Data
A What happened
The 'Health Sentinel' AI tool, developed by WadhwaniAI and deployed by the NCDC, has processed over 300 million news articles since April 2022, identifying more than 95,000 unique health events. It has enabled the issuance of over 5,000 real-time alerts to health authorities, significantly improving the speed and efficiency of disease surveillance in India. The tool scans media in 13 languages and has replaced traditional manual processes, which were often slow and labor-intensive. The study highlights a 150% increase in published health events since the tool's introduction, with 96% of these events identified by the AI. This advancement supports the need for modernized surveillance systems that incorporate online media for better outbreak detection.
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Key insights

  • 1

    Enhanced outbreak detection

    AI tool improves speed and accuracy of identifying health threats.

  • 2

    Reduction in manual workload

    Automation cuts down 98% of traditional manual scanning efforts.

  • 3

    Multilingual capabilities

    Tool scans media reports in 13 languages for broader coverage.

Takeaways

The deployment of the 'Health Sentinel' AI tool marks a significant advancement in disease surveillance, enabling quicker responses to potential outbreaks and reducing the burden on health authorities.

Topics

AI & ML Medicine Public Health