Microsoft, Apollo Hospitals unveil AI to predict cardiovascular disease risk

Apollo doctors can now drive preventive cardiac care across the country

Anil Bhansali

Microsoft India and Apollo Hospitals on Friday said they had unveiled the ‘first-ever’ artificial intelligence-powered cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk score API (application program interface), designed to predict the risk of CVD in the Indian population. This would also enable doctors across the Apollo network of hospitals to drive preventive cardiac care across the country.

“We are trying to see how we can use our cloud and AI technology to help democratise healthcare,” Anil Bhansali, MD, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt. Ltd., said in a telephone interview. “We believe AI is there to augment human ingenuity. We understand the challenges the healthcare industry is having and we do believe the power of the cloud and AI can help move that trend more towards preventive and predictive [healthcare], reduce costs… and lead to better patient outcomes,” he said.

Microsoft selected Apollo for this collaboration as it needed a partner which could provide key ingredients such as relevant data and the right level of domain expertise in cardiology to build the technology, he said.

More accurate risk score

Part of Microsoft’s AI Network for Healthcare, the API is built on the software firm’s cloud computing platform Azure and aims to determine a more accurate CVD risk score for the Indian population. It has been developed using a combination of applied AI and clinical expertise on a large sample of retrospective data on health checks and coronary events.

The scoring considers risk contributors including lifestyle attributes such as diet, tobacco and smoking preferences and physical activity. The other parameters include psychological stress and anxiety as reflected via the rate of respiration, hypertension and systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

“The amalgamation of AI and machine learning with the global expertise of our doctors will help prevent heart disease, save lives and ensure those with heart disease can make informed choices on their health,” Sangita Reddy, joint MD, Apollo Hospitals, said in a statement.

One in every eight Indians suffers from high blood pressure, according to the National Family Health survey by the Union Health Ministry. Despite the enormous number of cases, doctors in India are unable to identify the probability of cardiovascular disease. While there are various CVD risk models available worldwide, these do not cater specifically to the Indian population, according to Microsoft.