National launch of an AI (artificial intelligence) tool to predict risk of cardiovascular disease

Apollo Hospitals announced the national launch of an AI (artificial intelligence) tool to predict risk of cardiovascular disease. The Apollo AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk tool will help healthcare providers to predict the risk of cardiac disease in their patients and initiate intervention early enough to make a real difference. The cardiac risk scoring tool is remarkable for the speed in processing data and its accuracy at predicting the probability of a patient developing coronary disease. Using the tool, physicians will be enabled to deliver proactive, pre-emptive and preventive care for at-risk individuals, improving lives while mitigating future pressure on healthcare systems.  

On the occasion, Apollo Hospitals also announced that it has found pride of place in the Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 ranking released by Newsweek, the premier international news magazine and website. The ranking in partnership with global research firm Statista ranks the world's best specialized hospitals and features the top 250 hospitals for cardiology and oncology and the top 150 for paediatrics among ten specialities. The Apollo Heart Centre at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai makes it to the list of Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 – Cardiology with a global rank of 126 and ranks No. 1 among the five Indian hospitals in the list.  

Also, in the Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 – Oncology, two hospitals from the Apollo Hospitals Group make it to the list with Apollo Cancer Centres at Apollo Speciality Cancer Hospital, Chennai and Apollo Hospitals, Chennai ranked at 228 and 239 respectively. The two hospitals are among just four Indian hospitals that are in list for Oncology. In the Paediatric speciality, Apollo Children’s Hospital, Chennai ranked at 103 globally and one among just five Indian hospitals that are part of the Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 – Paediatrics ranking. 

Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “The nation’s economy is intricately linked to the health of the people with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) leading to loss of productivity with a consequent impact on national income. 

While estimates suggest that NCDs account for an economic burden in the range of 5% to 10% of GDP, it is the chronic nature of NCDs, and their projected increase in prevalence, that will result in a growing economic impact if not addressed in time. Among the rising burden of NCDs, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) figure at the top. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the Asia Pacific, and it’s a problem that will only intensify as our populations continue to age. It’s also a problem that healthcare providers struggle to diagnose early enough to make a real difference. 

“While some predictive tools do exist to help physicians understand the probability of their patients developing heart disease, most of these are based on Western data sets and don’t take regional risk variations into account. This impacts their accuracy when applied in an Indian context. The Apollo AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk tool will change that and put the knowledge and the means to predict and prevent heart disease in the physician’s hands. Available till now only to Apollo’s physicians, it is a proud moment for us to dedicate this AI tool to all physicians in the country.” 

Speaking on the Newsweek recognition, Dr. Prathap C Reddy added, “This global recognition is testament to the specialty healthcare of international standards provided at Apollo Hospitals with outcomes matching those of the world’s best hospitals. Apollo Hospitals, with some of the world’s finest and brightest medical experts, has been the pioneer in bringing ground-breaking healthcare technologies to India to deliver best in class clinical results.” 

The team at Apollo Hospitals collected more than ten years of data relating to 400,000 individuals across the country. Then, they used Microsoft Azure to turn that anonymized data into actionable insights that data scientists and clinicians could use to train machine learning models. The tool has been validated using data from the Maastricht Study, a long-term cohort health study in the Maastricht region and from the Heart+VascularCenter at Maastricht University Medical Center, Netherlands. 

Ms. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “The AI tool to predict and prevent heart disease is the fruition of many years of research and development and stands testament to Apollo Hospitals’ technological prowess. Apollo’s AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk Score is specifically for use in the Indian population, so physicians can better predict the risk of cardiac disease in their patients. The tool is built on algorithms based on ten years of anonymized data relating to around 400,000 individuals across the country collected by the team at Apollo Hospitals.  

“The tool has also been validated internationally using federated learning through Microsoft Azure Platform. Doctors across the Apollo network have been leveraging this AI-powered tool for three years to predict risk of cardiovascular disease and drive preventive cardiac care across the country. With this launch of the AI tool to predict risk of heart disease, we will be able to help achieve the World Health Organization’s goal of reducing the risk of premature mortality from non-communicable diseases, including CVDs, by 25% by 2025.” 

The AI-powered tool delivers a more accurate CVD risk score using algorithms specifically for the Indian population and helps in developing standardised care regimens. Developed using a combination of applied AI and clinical expertise on a large sample of retrospective data on health checks and coronary events, the tool delivers a risk score that takes into account all contributing factors including lifestyle attributes such as diet, tobacco & smoking preferences and physical activity as well as psychological stress and anxiety as reflected via rate of respiration, and hypertension. The risk is categorized into High, Moderate and Minimal. The tool also gives insights on the risk contributors that can be modified to improve the score. This enables physicians to give a more holistic advice to their patients with specific insights for lifestyle modification. For details on accessing the AI tool, physicians may send in their details to infoaicvd@apollohospitals.com