HealthNet Global (HNG), a part of the Apollo Hospitals Group, India and Zebra Medical Vision (Zebra-Med), one of the global leaders in AI Imaging software, Israel have announced a new collaboration that will focus on validating and deploying AI based tools at scale across India.

The companies shall jointly receive support from India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I⁴F) for their $4.9 Million project to co-develop and to provide clinical validation, and evidence of the efficacy of radiology Al based tools in India as per I⁴F norms.

The final developed project will be able to assist as a primary screening method for major diseases in large scale screenings. For example, World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 3.6 million people with TB are missed by health systems every year and do not receive adequate care. This is primarily because patients with TB may present with mild or no symptoms, particularly early on.

Many affected people arrive at clinics too late with advanced disease or multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), which is difficult to treat and more likely to cause death. One of the key strategies to tackling TB is early diagnosis. Unfortunately, sputum testing is only 50% accurate and frequently misses the disease in its early stages. Both companies will focus on development of AI-based Chest X-ray interpretation tool for TB which can help address the gap. 

In addition to leveraging clinical depth and breadth of the Apollo Hospitals network, HNG will work in close collaboration with Apollo Radiology International, a distinguished part of Apollo Hospitals, to bring in leadership, experience and technology in Radiology reporting to the project.  The partnership will capitalize on the advancements already achieved by Zebra-ed in developing dozens of AI tools. The arsenal of algorithms will include deep learning algorithms for the detection of acute conditions such as brain bleeds in head CTs and Pneumothorax in chest X-ray, detection of breast cancer in mammograms, Osteoporosis in CT scans and 40 other conditions.

The grant will aid the partners to focus on development of India specific algorithms tool which would be of immense benefit to patients across India and other emerging nations. The project will also modify existing algorithms to make them suitable for the Indian population. The final product will assist provide high quality radiology access to remote locations by alerting the presence of critical findings immediately. This will help provide timely, cost-effective, quality care to patients in remote and rural locations.