NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Dr Vani Ravikumar has been a pathologist for almost three decades. Her daily routine involves going through samples, one after another, one after another, day in and day out. Recently, Bengaluru-based AIndra, an artificial intelligence-based cervical cancer screening startup, reached out to her. Its proposition was simple— apply AI to screen and identify samples. Only those samples indicating a risk of cancer would be sent to the experts for further examination.

“My first thought was, ‘you are going to replace me, your algorithm will say if cancer is present or not.’ If the computer does this job of mine, what will happen to me? You are trying to pull me out of my seat,” said Ravikumar, cofounder of Karnataka-based diagnostic chain RV Metropolis.

After a few more interactions, Ravikumar’s apprehensions began to wear out. Screening by AI, she sensed, could help her examine more samples in less time as the algorithm would allow her to concentrate on the ones that require her expertise. “In the hands of clinicians, it will become a force multiplier, it will make them supermen,” said Adarsh Natarajan, cofounder of AIndra.