As part of Microsoft’s AI Network for Healthcare initiative, Microsoft India and Apollo Hospitals Group have set up a National Clinical Coordination Committee (NCCC) for the AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk Score API (application program interface).

The committee consists of leading doctors from Apollo Hospitals; All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; and King George’s Medical University, Lucknow. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the biggest cause of mortality in India with nearly 25 percent of mortalities – amongst the age group of 25 to 69 years. The condition also seems to affect Indians at least a decade earlier as compared to Europeans.

Given the high prevalence of CVDs affecting Indians, Apollo Hospitals and Microsoft India, in 2018, launched the first ever AI-powered CVD Risk Score API, designed specifically to predict the risk of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) in the Indian population. 

Till date, over 2,00,000 people have already been screened using the AI-powered API across Apollo Hospitals and in many cases, physicians have been able to predict the risk score of patients 5 to 7 years in advance, a Microsoft India spokesperson said here on Thursday. Built on Microsoft Azure, the API aims to determine a more accurate CVD risk score for the Indian population taking into consideration risk factors including lifestyle attributes like diet, tobacco & smoking preferences, physical activity and psychological stress & anxiety.

Speaking about the National Clinical Coordination Committee, Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group, said, “We have brought some of the best cardiologists from renowned hospitals like AIIMS and KGMU together to be a part of this committee. The NCCC will help us immensely in our fight against the rising tsunami of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). We are also extending the scope of our partnership with Microsoft to meet the growing healthcare demands of people across the country and contribute more towards saving precious lives.”

The NCCC will be assisting the core team at Apollo Hospitals and Microsoft by providing guidance on all cardiology and cardiovascular related AI projects; clinical insights on developing clinical algorithm and treatment guidelines based on the inferences of national, multi centre prospective study.

“The NCCC is a great step forward as part of our partnership with Apollo. We are also engaging global consortium partners to scale the AI-powered API. We have already received approval for a pilot study and we hope that the findings will enable physicians to better understand the causes of CVDs in Indian population,” said Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise, Microsoft.

Apollo Hospitals and Microsoft India are already in discussions with renowned health systems across the world to scale the API and contribute towards World Health Organization’s goal of reducing the risk of premature mortality (30 to 69 years of age) from NCDs, including CVDs, by 25 per cent by 2025.