CS calls for steps to introduce AI in medical education

Chief Secretary Dr KS Jawahar Reddy has directed the officials of the Medical and Health Department to undertake a suitable preliminary exercise to introduce Artificial Intelligence technology in medical education in the State. He met the officials of the Medical and Health Department on Wednesday at the State Secretariat and spoke on the Employees Health Scheme, management of Aarogyasri medical services, awareness programmes on Aarogyasri, distribution of medicines to patients, and introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in medical education.
The CS said that the government has given the highest priority to the education and medical sectors in the State and spent thousands of crores of rupees. Infrastructure is being provided on a large scale. “Especially since it is the government’s idea to introduce artificial intelligence to get more and better immediate benefits in medical education, the officials of the medical department should conduct a preliminary level exercise and prepare a report on this. Artificial intelligence will be very useful for medical students in areas like robot assisted surgeries, drug dosage and delivery, epidemic prediction and prevention, rare disease identification, area of specific disease pattern and age specific pattern,” he said.
He instructed the officials of the Medical and Health Department to inform the representatives of government employees unions in the Joint Staff Council about the measures taken to provide more benefits through the Employee Health Scheme (EHS). CS suggested that steps should be taken to bring an alternative approach to reach the patients on time. He ordered the officials of the Department of Health, Women and Child Welfare to prepare a database in order to prevent anaemia among adolescent girls. CS Jawahar Reddy also reviewed the various medical services provided to the people by Jagananna Aarogya Suraksha.
Special Principal Secretary of Medical Health Department MT Krishna Babu explained the measures taken in connection with the implementation of the employees’ health scheme through a PowerPoint presentation and said that the deadline of the employees’ medical reimbursement scheme will be completed by the end of March.
Similarly, steps are being taken to increase the ceiling limit for uncovered procedures in EHS. Steps are being taken to issue new EHS cards and amend EHS packages.
Explaining about the distribution of Aarogyasri cards, Krishna Babu stated that out of a total of 1,43,60,620 cards, 1,13, 48,378 have been delivered while 79,78,000 cards have already been distributed. Another 33,70,000 cards are to be distributed. Regarding the distribution of medicines to chronic patients, it was explained that out of 25,742 prescriptions, 20,620 medicines have been dispatched and 4,172 are in the pending process. Special CS Krishnababu explained the treatments provided to people through Jagananna Aarogya Suraksha Pathakam-1 and 2 and other services.
Commissioner J Niwas, APMSIDC MD Muralidhar Reddy, Secondary Health Director Dr S Venkateswar, DME Dr Narasimham, Aarogyasri CEO Balaji also attended the meeting virtually.