Bengaluru’s Narayana hospital hires artificial intelligence to overcome Covid-19

Narayana Hospitals, conglomerate group of multi-speciality hospitals, heart centres and primary care facilities, based in Bengaluru, has upgraded their treatment services with artificial intelligence (AI). This change will help in containing the contagion of the virus by upgrading from the in-person doctor consultation and assessment to online and remote tracking.

The hospitals will be having the services of AI based technology platforms called Atma and Neha. Neha will be assisting the doctors by remotely examining patients accessing data that comprises of the temperature, blood pressure, cardiac risk assessment of the patients and to also help them with the necessary suggestions. Alongside, Atma will simplify the payment protocol for consultation, be a discharge counter and pharmacy.

Covid-19 has fast-tracked the legalisation of telemedicine, said Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, Chairman and Executive director of Narayana Hospitals.

Dr. Shetty said, “At present, we are treating 400 Covid-19 patients, 100 of whom are in the Intensive Care Unit.. Our attempt has been that the least number of doctors and support staff comes to the hospitals.”

He iterated that over a time-frame of 17 years, the hospital has treated 53,000 patients by utilizing technology. He particularly emphasized on telemedicine, “We asked for telemedicine to be legalised but it didn’t happen. One week of Covid-19 and telemedicine is now a reality.”