Adopt cloud-based analytics for Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), its healthcare screening programme for children
Government of Telangana announced an agreement with Microsoft India to adopt cloud-based analytics for Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), its healthcare screening programme for children. The state has also agreed to adopt Microsoft Intelligent Network for Eyecare (MINE), an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform to reduce avoidable blindness.
The Government of Telangana and Microsoft had signed an MoU in November 2016 to use Microsoft’s cloud technology to drive citizen services and digital inclusion. Under this MoU, Microsoft India conducted a cloud-based, advanced analytics pilot project to understand the health screening programme among children from birth to eighteen years in ten districts.
The process involved health screenings of school students, carried out by mobile health teams under the RBSK, under the National Health Mission (NHM). The pilot, using Microsoft’s advanced analytics helped the state government unlock actionable insights by highlighting major conditions affecting the health of children in the state. The pilot is now scaling to a full-fledged solution which will enable the Telangana health officials to gain valuable insights to tackle health conditions covered under the RBSK program in children across the state. One of the insights already derived, indicated that vision impairment is one of the most prevalent health issues among children. The Government of Telangana has decided to adopt MINE to address this issue which will help them make early interventions and preventing or treating instances of refractive errors.
Speaking about the partnership, KT Rama Rao, Minister of IT, Government of Telangana, said, “We are pleased to announce that Telangana will be the first state in India to bring AI in Public Health Screening and we are excited about how technology has the potential to make great social impact. We are the first state to adopt MINE an AI-based model to tackle avoidable blindness and we welcome Microsoft’s partnership in this endeavour.”
Commenting on this initiative Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Government of Telangana, said, “This initiative in partnership with Microsoft can potentially touch up to 60 lakh children who will be screened for health conditions under the RBSK program. The Government of Telangana signed an MoU with Microsoft last year to identify areas of collaboration primarily in eGovernance, Health, Agriculture, Education, Skilling, as well as the modernisation of State Data Centers. Multiple areas were taken up and subsequently we decided to lead with healthcare first. It is heartening to see this association extend further into a scalable project involving the cloud platform and advanced analytics that will help build efficiencies of our health screening programme. With the AI platform MINE, we are hopeful that we can help detect and reduce avoidable blindness among children in our state.”