Hyderabad: The first FICCI Telangana healthcare panel, launched in Hyderabad, will work on policy recommendations for the Telangana govt, with a focus on AI-enabled, preventive and accessible healthcare, medical tourism, and skilling the healthcare workforce.The panel was launched at a conference on ‘AI-Enabled Healthcare and Digital Transformation’ organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Experts at the conference said AI could transform healthcare by enabling early disease prediction, personalised treatment and better integration of fragmented patient records.Dr Mona Duggal, director, ICMR-National Institute for Research in Digital Health, called for a broader approach to health data, saying healthcare systems should move from maintaining health records to creating ‘wellness records’. “Preventive and wellness information should feed into clinical records,” she added.Dr Avinash Pandey, group leader, NABH Digital Health, said healthcare organisations had invested heavily in digital systems over the past decade, but technology adoption alone had not translated into transformation, with clinicians in some hospitals still relying on paper records.Dr Chinna Babu, co-chair, FICCI Telangana healthcare panel, stressed the need to extend preventive and accessible healthcare services to tier-2 and tier-3 cities. “Inadequate infrastructure in smaller towns was forcing patients to travel to larger cities for treatment, increasing their out-of-pocket expenses,” he added.
