NEW DELHI: The Union Health Ministry has launched an online training programme on AI in healthcare to equip doctors across the country with essential digital competencies, ensuring that India’s medical workforce remains prepared for a technology-driven future, said Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel on Tuesday.
Speaking at the session on “Innovation to Impact: AI as a Public Health Game-Changer” at India AI Impact Summit 2026, she said that the online training programme was launched by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences.
She stressed that future-ready healthcare professionals must be AI-literate.
Highlighting AI’s transformative role in public health, the minister said that AI has been integrated across the entire continuum of healthcare-from disease surveillance and prevention to diagnosis and treatment.
“India’s vast and diverse population, the rural-urban divide, and the dual burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases present unique challenges. In such a context, technology - particularly AI - becomes an indispensable enabler,” she said.
Clarifying the role of technology, she asserted that AI is here to augment and assist, not to replace clinicians.
“By reducing the burden of routine and high-intensity tasks, AI enables doctors to devote more time to complex cases and critical clinical decision-making. Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art,” she said.
“Healthcare thrives not merely on algorithms but on human touch, empathy, compassion, and communication - qualities that cannot be replicated by machines and will always remain the domain of clinicians,” she further added.
Patel highlighted the Media Disease Surveillance System, an AI-enabled tool that monitors disease trends in as many as 13 languages, generates real-time alerts, and strengthens outbreak preparedness. “This system showcases the power of AI in augmenting India’s disease control efforts and enhancing surveillance capacity.”
She noted that when India speaks of AI in healthcare, it is not limited to sophisticated algorithms or the promise of precision alone, but is measured by the extent to which technology touches lives and addresses health inequities across the country.
“Under the One Health Mission, she further said that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has launched AI-based tools for genomic surveillance, capable of predicting potential zoonotic outbreaks even before transmission from animals to humans occurs.
Such predictive capabilities represent a paradigm shift in preventive public health, she added.
The minister said that as India advances towards the vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, health forms one of the most critical pillars of development.
Patel also highlighted the deployment of AI-enabled handheld X-ray machines and Computer-Aided Detection tools for tuberculosis (CA-TB), which have brought advanced diagnostics closer to communities.
These innovations have contributed to approximately 16 percent additional case detection in TB, she added. “Moreover, AI-based tools predicting adverse TB treatment outcomes have helped achieve a 27 percent decline in negative treatment results, strengthening India’s fight against tuberculosis,” she said.
Emphasizing scalability and affordability, Patel said that in a large population, resource-constrained setting like India, solutions must be scalable, frugal, and capable of addressing systemic gaps.
She noted that the government has actively worked towards building a strong AI ecosystem in healthcare, including the establishment of three Centres of Excellence for AI at AIIMS, Delhi, PGIMER, Chandigarh, and AIIMS, Rishikesh to integrate world-class AI expertise into public healthcare delivery.
Addressing the summit, Prof VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, emphasized that Artificial Intelligence presents a strategic opportunity to transform India’s healthcare landscape and accelerate progress towards universal health coverage.
He noted that given India’s scale, diversity, and dual burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, technology-driven, evidence-based interventions are essential to strengthen service delivery and improve health outcomes.
He highlighted that AI can significantly enhance primary healthcare, enable early diagnosis, strengthen disease surveillance, and support data-driven policy formulation.
Integrating AI with India’s growing digital public health infrastructure will ensure interoperability, real-time analytics, and more efficient resource allocation across the health system, he added.
He also underscored the importance of robust regulatory frameworks, ethical safeguards, and continuous validation to maintain safety and public trust.
He also called for sustained collaboration between government, academia, and industry to develop scalable, affordable, and indigenous AI solutions capable of delivering measurable impact at population scale.