Make in India: Crack the cancer code with tech
For thousands of doctors, researchers and analysts worldwide, cancer treatment has been a formidable technology challenge. While there is a huge amount of medical data on cancer patients around the world, most of this data is not organised in a way where researchers can make sense out of them. It is mostly unstructured data. While some nations like the US have initiated cancer research and have made decent headway, the data around disease behaviour and care behaviour are often combined to create holistic solutions. SAP, debunked this theory completely. In association with the Ramesh Nimmagadda Cancer Foundation, SAP has launched an ambitious initiative to generate credible patient data for better cancer treatment. By using its Connected Health and Medical Research Insights technologies, the company is ensuring that patient medical data is recorded and accessed effectively, using predictive analytics, forecasting behaviour based on existing data. By adding a layer of analytics on top of patient records, SAP has created an ecosystem of doctors, hospitals and practitioners, and enabling them to collaborate, exchange data and create patient care strategies. Amazon Web Services is helping with cloud storage.
From an Indian standpoint, SAP believes that disease behaviour and care behaviour should never be combined. There should be two different systems that handle data on symptoms and a totally different system that handles cures. Also, cancer patients in India require a totally different schedule of treatment compared to their Western counterparts. Even though the number of cancer patients in India is growing in large numbers, advanced technologies from India, a combination of cloud computing, analytics, and artificial intelligence, are there to fight cancer.