ITANAGAR, 22 Apr: The National Health Mission (NHM), Arunachal Pradesh, and Wadhwani AI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a public health partnership focused on deploying a suite of AI-powered solutions across the state’s health programs.
The collaboration aims to integrate responsible AI tools into priority areas, including tuberculosis care, telemedicine, maternal and child health, and eye health, while strengthening the capabilities of frontline health workers.
Wadhwani AI will serve as the technical partner, supporting the integration of AI-driven solutions aligned with the government’s public health priorities, the state IEC Bureau informed in a release on Wednesday.
Among the AI solutions for tuberculosis care is Cough Against TB (CATB), a mobile-based screening application that enables frontline healthcare workers to analyze cough sounds and symptoms to identify individuals with presumptive pulmonary TB, supporting early detection even in community settings.
In telemedicine, a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) provides clinicians with structured patient information and AI-assisted differential diagnosis recommendations during consultations, supporting more consistent and informed clinical decision-making across primary healthcare settings.
The partnership will also deploy Health Vaani, a voice- and text-based knowledge assistant that gives frontline health workers access to government-approved health guidelines, enabling faster decision-making and more consistent service delivery at the community level, the release said.
To address diabetes-related vision complications, MadhuNetrAI, an AI-enabled screening solution, analyzes retinal images to detect diabetic retinopathy (DR), supporting early referral for specialist care.
In maternal and newborn health, Shishu Maapan, an AI-powered newborn anthropometry tool, enables frontline health workers to capture accurate newborn measurements using a smartphone during home-based newborn care visits. By assessing weight and other growth indicators, the tool helps identify newborns at risk of growth complications during the critical early weeks after birth, allowing for timely referral and intervention.
Speaking on the occasion, Wadhwani AI chief programme officer Dr. Neeraj Agarwal said that through this partnership, Wadhwani AI aims to support the continuum of care-from identifying high-risk populations to enabling frontline workers with AI tools and strengthening early disease detection.
NHM State Mission director Marge Sora said, “Given our unique geographic challenges, it is essential that we adopt approaches that support timely decision-making and improve service delivery on the ground. As per approval received from the state government, this MoU is being signed as a step towards integrating such capabilities within our health system, with the aim of better supporting frontline workers and improving outcomes for communities across Arunachal Pradesh.
