Apurva Chandra Engages with Google Chief Health Officer at World Health Assembly

The primary agenda of the meeting was to discuss the ongoing collaboration between Google Research and the Union Health Ministry aimed at enhancing accessibility to digital health tools.

Shri Apurva Chandra, Union Health Secretary, led the Indian delegation in a meeting with Dr. Karen DeSalvo, Chief Health Officer at Google, during a side-event of the 77th World Health Assembly of the WHO in Geneva. The primary agenda of the meeting was to discuss the ongoing collaboration between Google Research and the Union Health Ministry aimed at enhancing accessibility to digital health tools.

Appreciation and Collaboration

Shri Apurva Chandra commended the existing engagement between the two organizations and emphasized the importance of exploring further collaboration.- Areas for potential collaboration discussed included Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Google's support for the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), particularly in developing digital health tools like Automated Retinal Disease Assessment (ARDA) and integrating them into the ABDM framework.

Google's Engagement with India's National Health Authority

The Google team highlighted their ongoing collaboration with India's National Health Authority (NHA), which began in 2022 with the listing of Google's AI model for diabetic retinopathy screening (ARDA) on ABDM's website.- The collaboration has extended to the development of an open-sourced ABDM wrapper to simplify the integration process with ABDM's sandbox.

Presence of Key Officials

The meeting was attended by key officials from the Union Health Ministry, including Ms. Hekali Zhimomi, Additional Secretary; Ms. Aradhana Patnaik, Additional Secretary and Managing Director (NHM); and Dr. Basant Garg, Additional CEO, National Health Authority.

The engagement between the Union Health Ministry and Google underscores the shared commitment to leveraging technology to improve healthcare accessibility and outcomes in India. The discussion at the World Health Assembly reflects a strategic partnership aimed at advancing digital health initiatives and fostering innovation in healthcare delivery.