IIT-Mandi ties up with US health-tech firm for AI research

IIT-Mandi has entered into a partnership with US health-tech firm RxDataScience for pharma research on artificial intelligence and machine learning, The Tribune reported.

A team from IIT-Mandi is planning to work closely with RxDataScience Inc. to use cognitive algorithms and deep learning techniques to identify patterns in the medical journeys of patients as well as discover social ties among physicians. Official sources told The Tribune that this is a long-term collaboration aimed at using machine learning in healthcare, especially data sets concerning patients and physicians, to develop new web-based visualisations.

“Data sciences in India are at a very nascent stage, but in the United States, most healthcare and pharmaceutical companies have moved on to the consulting stage, wherein live cases are debated online by doctors and medical practitioners’ community,” said Varun Dutt, assistant professor, school of computing and electrical engineering, IIT-Mandi.

Dutt is optimistic about the healthcare sector’s future in India because the government has, in the last Union budget, allocated Rs 1,200 crore for opening up new hospitals.

The research is expected to furnish new data that machines can use for healthcare mapping online.

RxDataScience, founded in 2016, is a big data analytics software company focused on creating data science products and solutions. It is headquartered in North Carolina, US.

“Both patients and our biopharma clients benefit from insights generated using novel approaches with cognitive and decision sciences applied to patient finding, patient journey and other complex use cases. We are excited to continue our long-term partnership with Dutt and the PhD and undergraduate students at IIT Mandi,” said Larry Pickett, chief executive officer, RxDataScience.