Airtel, Apollo Hospitals, AWS carry out India’s first 5G driven, Artificial Intelligence guided Colonoscopy trial

Bhubaneswar: Bharti Airtel, India’s premier communications solutions provider and Apollo Hospitals,
Asia’s foremost trusted integrated healthcare group today announced that they have carried out India’s
first 5G driven, Artificial Intelligence (AI) guided Colonoscopy trial.
The trial was conducted using AI on Airtel’s 5G technology with ultra-low latency and high processing
capabilities as a result of which the colon cancer got detected much faster and with greater accuracy.
HealthNet Global, AWS and Avesha are the other three companies that collaborated in this trial.
As a result of AI guided colonoscopy procedure, the image processing happened in real time without any
lag even when the physician moved the scope through the colon for it to be overlaid on top of the right
element of the colon. The advent of this technology enables an “extra pair of eyes” for physicians and
improves the detection rate of polyps, thus saving lives and vastly improving patient care. The data was
processed by Avesha edge inferencing applications on AWS platforms on a real time resulting in much
faster analysis. AI assisted Colonoscopy Polyp Detection trial will help doctors to improve quality of
patient care, improve accuracy of detection rates by capturing information correctly and reducing
errors. 5G, Edge computing and Artificial Intelligence can significantly improve patient outcomes by
assisting in proper and timely diagnoses.
As per current protocol, colon cancer is detected through colonoscopy procedure which is manual and
requires great attention and time from medical practitioners for accurate detection. Currently, the
procedure is performed using a device comprising of flexible tube with light, camera and tools at one
end, which are used to extract samples to identify an infected polyp. Not only is the procedure long, its
discomforting for patients and for the doctors and nurses who perform the procedure which takes
around 30 to 40 minutes.
Speaking about the trial, Ajay Chitkara, CEO and Director, Airtel Business said “Ultra-fast, low
latency 5G networks will transform the Healthcare sector in the country. At Airtel, we are
geared up to lead this transformation and have demonstrated this by conducting India’s first
colonoscopy trials. Healthcare is one of the most promising use cases for 5G, and we are
delighted to collaborate Apollo Hospitals, AWS, HealthNet Global and Avesha. This is just the
beginning, and I am certain we will bring many more innovative use cases that will help
redefine healthcare in the country.”
“By augmenting doctor’s ability to detect, AI has been proved to improve physician’s accuracy.
Early detection and removal of polyps can easily avoid them becoming cancerous. Apollo has
always been a fore runner in adoption of technology. Our patient centric approach keeps us on
an outlook for technologies which can make outcomes better.” said Dr. Sangita Reddy, Joint
Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group.