Microsoft’s AI network to help Apollo Hospitals in early detection of heart diseases

Expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities, Redmond-headquartered Microsoft has tied up with Chennai-based Apollo Hospitals group to help doctors in the early detection of heart-related diseases, the tech giant said in a blog.

Through the Microsoft Intelligent Network for Eyecare (MINE), now known as the AI Network for Healthcare, Microsoft and Apollo will create an AI-focused network in cardiology, the blog added

The AI Network for Healthcare is part of Microsoft Healthcare NExT aimed to accelerate healthcare innovation through AI and cloud computing.

Under the new partnership, both entities will work to develop and deploy new machine learning models to predict patient risk for heart disease and assists doctors on treatment plans. The team is already working on an AI-powered Cardio API (application program interface) platform, Microsoft said in its blog.

“AI Network for healthcare aims to democratize artificial intelligence by empowering healthcare providers with faster, intuitive and predictable solutions and reducing the disease burden.  The systems of intelligence we create can change the lives of patients and the work of medical practitioners enabling accessible healthcare to all,” Dr Peter Lee, corporate vice president, AI and research at Microsoft, said in the blog.

The Satya Nadella-led firm also has a similar existing partnership with LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad.

Bascom Palmer – University of Miami, Flaum Eye Institute – University of Rochester (USA), Federal University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), and Brien Holden Vision Institute (Australia) also contribute to MINE.

Armonk-headquartered IT giant IBM has also been using services from its cognitive engine Watson in India to enable faster cancer detection in patients. The solution deployed at the Manipal Hospital in Bangalore has been trained over a year now and has reached a stage where it can identify cancer types in patients and suggest remedies accordingly.

In a separate development, Microsoft has also partnered with chip maker Intel to support the latter’s Movidius vision processor unit on its OS stack. This purpose-built chip for accelerating AI workloads at the edge, which is the point of entry into the enterprise core network, will allow developers to build and deploy the next generation of deep neural network applications on Windows clients, the chip maker said in a blog.

Movidius Myriad X is a vision processor from Intel.