HYDERABAD: Patients who suffer from heart attacks and get admitted at hospitals in the United Kingdom (UK) on weekends, are more likely to die. Indians staying in the UK have 30 per cent more risk of developing diabetes when compared to Caucasians, says research finding which was found through big data research. Dr. Rahul Potluri, a British-Indian cardiologist, researcher and founder of ACALM (Algorithm for Comorbidities Associations, Length of Stay and Mortality) came out with these research findings. Dr. Potluri, born in Vijayawada, has completed his education from Aston Medical School, Aston University, University of Manchester, University of Birmingham. He developed the ACALM methodology as a medical student and along with Hardeep Uppal founded the ACALM Study Unit in 2013.
His clinical epidemiology research unit is one of the first to use big data in healthcare and medical research. The 33-year-old was in the city to make a case to embrace the idea of big data research in India. In an interview to Express, Dr Potluri explained how the big data can be used, if sufficient data is available in India.
Are your research studies based on UK patients’ data, or data from India was studied too?
Out of four million patients’ data, we researched, half a million data belongs to Indians who are staying in the UK. I recently concluded a study based on 12,000 patients, with a significant number of them being Indians, to look into Chronic Total Occlusions in Coronary Artery Disease. We found that Indians have 20 percent more chances of developing Chronic Total Occlusions at a younger age (40-50-years) when compared to Caucasians.
How are these findings helpful?
The big data research findings help to caution people to take care of themselves in better ways. Indians having 30 per cent higher risk of developing diabetes between the ages 40 to 60-years, when compared to Caucasians, indicates that it is not a lifestyle issue but related to ethnicity. These findings can be extrapolated to know the situation in India.
How is big data research in India?
There is not much big data research into health right now. But, in 2017, India is ripe for big data research as using Aadhaar card every patient's profile is crosslinked across platforms. Secondly, large number of IT companies are suddenly interested in health care. Even if Aadhaar data is not available, private hospitals have been collecting patients’ health details.
What are you going to do through ACALM?
The next step is analytics, predictions and personalisation. As an example, if you have symptoms of headache, suffer from short of breath, produce family history of health, aged between 40 to 50-years, we can find if they are symptoms are that of heart attack or other health issue. Using machine learning and artificial intelligence, you can put it all together, create applications that can come out with the risk rate of heart attack. These possibilities can be taken to health care providers.