Building Global Healthcare Systems Powered With AI and Innovation

The recent years have outlined the importance of a reliable Global Healthcare system. Along with this has come the realization of the rising disparity between patient needs and their accessibility to effective medical support. Two-thirds of medical diagnosis worldwide is still done using a microscope, which is a laborious task and requires skilled professionals. In contrast to this, one-third of the diagnostic labs around the world do not have access to a trained pathologist - this means that there is approximately 1 pathologist for a population of 1.5 million.

One can understand why these figures would be a cause for concern. In the field of healthcare, a timely diagnosis is of crucial importance for effective treatment. Delays and inaccuracies, which can easily occur in the aforementioned setting, can not only cost us wasted money and energy but also lives.

As one could guess, a majority of this disparity arises in developing nations. In his presentation, Mr Guruprasad, Vice-President at Bosch India, speaking at the Healthcare IT Summit in India, outlines how Bosch’s line of healthcare products can help the populations of such nations access effective diagnosis and screening services with the help of technology. Bosch’s products, solutions and services aim at confronting this disparity between patients and medical aid; and providing quality medical assistance to individuals across socio-economic segments.

Anemia is amongst one of the most common health problems across the world, affecting over 1.6 billion individuals. The condition is marked by a lowered RBC count which impacts the oxygen levels in the bloodstream. This can lead to lowered immunity, lethargy and complications during pregnancy. The key to eradicating Anemia lies in timely diagnosis followed by adequate dietary supplementation to improve the RBC count in the blood.

In a radical innovation for diagnosis, Bosch has introduced a device that is non-invasive, affordable, compact and highly accurate. The Bosch Hemoglobin Monitoring Solution is completely hand-held and can be operated with a single button. The patient has to simply place their finger into the scanner and the results are displayed, within 30 seconds.

It is important to note that the Bosch Hemoglobin Monitoring Solution is 100% non-invasive and requires no other consumables for its testing. It can be set up at the doctor’s office as well as aid in home-testing settings. Being non-invasive, the product reduces the risk of infection and patient pain in the process of testing. It is also highly sensitive, which mean that it can report accurate readings for the slightest change in Hemoglobin levels. It is completely portable and comes with an in-built battery pack which makes it ideal for remote settings with unreliable electricity supplies.

The Bosch Hemoglobin Monitoring Solution has won multiple prestigious awards such as the Consumer Electronics Innovation award, NASCOM Engineering Innovation award, as well as the European Product Design award.

The Bosch Vivalution is a next-generation AI-powered digital pathology system built to aid laboratory professionals in quick and precise diagnosis. It digitizes bio-samples and uses AI algorithms to provide a clinical interpretation. Being a connected solution, like all Bosch healthcare products, the system allows these results to be reviewed by peers and experts with ease. Compact and powerful, Bosch Vivalution has also received the CES Innovation award and prestigious design awards as the European Product Design award A Design Award and IF Design Award.

In a traditional setup, which relies on manual microscopic analysis by a trained pathologist, the process could be highly time and energy-consuming. Through Bosch Vivalution, the manual process of the diagnosis is automated, and an evidence-based report is shared with the professionals for further diagnosis. This could help completely transform the way of business for labs by allowing remote expert consultation for patients in developing nations, as well as a faster and accurate diagnosis for patients, in general.

All the healthcare products by Bosch come built-in with Vivasuite, which is a holistic cloud-based platform for healthcare management and collaboration. The platform offers features such as device, clinical and business connectivity as well research aids for healthcare centres.

The Vivasuite platform is not limited to Bosch products and can be built into almost any other medical product.

The future of healthcare is grounded in optimism. With innovations that support faster, remote and accurate diagnosis, Bosch’s products can empower the existing healthcare systems as well as help extend state-of-the-art medical support to underprivileged communities.

This change is driven by bottom-of-the-pyramid innovation, which aims at developing cost-effective solutions that are in line with the challenges of today’s healthcare landscape. These connected solutions aim at transforming the global healthcare sector with technology as an anchor point.