India Accelerates Public Health Innovation with AI: MoHFW Drives Nationwide Transformation through Centres of Excellence and Smart Solutions

The MoHFW’s AI push spans multiple domains of public health, from infectious disease surveillance to telemedicine, tuberculosis elimination, and diagnostic imaging.

In a bold move to revolutionize healthcare delivery in India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has significantly expanded its efforts to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into the nation’s public health infrastructure. The initiative is part of a broader strategy to enhance disease surveillance, diagnostics, treatment outcomes, and accessibility of healthcare services for millions of citizens, particularly in underserved and rural areas.

To spearhead this transformation, the Ministry has designated premier medical institutions – All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi and Rishikesh, and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh – as ‘Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence in Health’. These centers will serve as hubs for the development, testing, and deployment of AI-powered tools and will also provide guidance on ethical, regulatory, and data privacy frameworks in healthcare AI usage.

AI-Powered Innovations Reshaping Indian Healthcare

The MoHFW’s AI push spans multiple domains of public health, from infectious disease surveillance to telemedicine, tuberculosis elimination, and diagnostic imaging.

One of the flagship AI applications developed by the Ministry is the Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS), now embedded within the eSanjeevani national telemedicine platform. This AI-enabled tool assists healthcare professionals by streamlining the patient consultation process — automating the entry of patient complaints and offering differential diagnosis recommendations based on data analytics. Since its integration, over 196 million teleconsultations have benefitted from standardized data capture. Moreover, 12 million consultations have directly utilized AI-recommended diagnoses, helping clinicians make quicker and more accurate treatment decisions.

In parallel, the Ministry is leveraging AI for event-based infectious disease surveillance through the Media Disease Surveillance (MDS) solution, which has been operational since April 2022. This tool monitors digital news sources across the country to identify early signals of potential disease outbreaks. Since its launch, MDS has flagged over 4,500 event alerts, enabling health authorities at the district level to implement timely interventions. This has significantly contributed to reducing the risk of epidemic outbreaks and minimizing mortality and morbidity.

Fighting TB with AI: A National Priority

In alignment with India’s ambitious target to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2025, the MoHFW has deployed AI tools specifically designed to enhance TB detection and treatment outcomes.

The ‘Cough Against TB’ AI model is a community-based screening solution that analyzes cough sounds to identify potential TB cases. This tool has been instrumental in detecting cases that might have otherwise been missed through conventional methods. In regions where it has been deployed, it has yielded a 12–16% increase in TB detection, reinforcing the importance of AI-driven mass screening.

Complementing this, the ‘Prediction of Adverse TB Outcomes’ AI solution uses early patient data to forecast individuals at risk of developing complications during TB treatment. This predictive capability enables healthcare workers to intervene proactively. Areas using this tool have reported a 27% reduction in adverse outcomes, showcasing its potential to improve patient survival and treatment adherence.

Early-Stage Innovations and a Roadmap Ahead

Apart from the fully operational systems, the Ministry has also initiated work on several cutting-edge AI-based diagnostic tools. These include:

• An AI model for detecting diabetic retinopathy, which could help prevent vision loss in millions of diabetic patients through early screening.
• An Abnormal Chest X-ray Classifier, aimed at providing faster radiological interpretation in primary healthcare settings where trained radiologists are not readily available.

These technologies are currently in the early stages of development and are expected to scale nationally after successful validation.

Institutional Support and Strategic Vision

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Shri Prataprao Jadhav, emphasized the government’s commitment to harnessing AI for improving healthcare outcomes. He noted that sector-specific policy measures, cross-sectoral collaborations, and investments in AI capacity-building are all underway to support this technological transformation.

The Centres of Excellence are also tasked with not just deploying solutions but also with training healthcare workers, conducting research, and ensuring the AI tools developed are ethically sound, clinically validated, and scalable across diverse health ecosystems.

Transforming Healthcare Delivery for the Future

India’s embrace of AI in public health signals a paradigm shift, particularly in how healthcare services can be scaled, standardized, and optimized for impact. By bridging gaps in manpower, expertise, and infrastructure, AI-driven solutions offer a pathway to more equitable, efficient, and data-informed healthcare delivery.

As these initiatives continue to evolve, India is poised to become a global leader in the responsible and innovative use of AI in health, setting a powerful precedent for other developing nations.