In News:

• The Koita Centre for Digital Oncology (KCDO) set up at Tata Memorial Hospital, will promote the use of digital technologies and tools (AI-based) to improve cancer care across India.
• KCDO was established by National Cancer Grid (NCG) with contributions from Koita Foundation.

What’s in today’s article

• About National Cancer Grid
• About Koita Foundation
• About the Koita Centre for Digital Oncology

About National Cancer Grid (NCG):

• NCG was established in 2012 as a government of India initiative through the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and its grant-in-aid institution, the Tata Memorial Centre.
• It aims to create a network of cancer centres, research institutes, patient groups and charitable institutions across India with the objective of developing uniform standards of patient care for -
  • Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer;
  • Providing specialised training and education in oncology and
  • Facilitating collaborative basic, translational and clinical research in cancer.
• NCG today has over 270 hospitals in its network across India.

About Koita Foundation:

• Koita Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2017.
• It has two focus areas - non-governmental organisation (NGO) Transformation and Digital Health.
• As part of Koita Foundation’s Digital Health initiatives,
  • It has partnered with IIT Bombay to establish the Koita Centre for Digital Health and works closely with National Health Authority (NHA) and National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) on their Digital Health initiatives.
  • It has partnered with NCG and Tata Memorial Centre to establish Koita Centre for Digital Oncology, which will promote the use of digital technologies and tools (AI-based) to improve cancer care across India. 

The Koita Centre for Digital Oncology (KCDO):

• Stats regarding cancer:
  • It is estimated that over 10 lakh new cancer cases are detected in India every year.
  • Cancer care is evolving rapidly and digital tools are becoming indispensable in enhancing cancer care worldwide.
  • At present, the 40 cancer patient registries maintained by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)capture details of about 10% of Indian cancer patients.
  • As the 270 hospitals in the NCG treat about 60% of the country’s cancer patients. The digitisation drive will make data of lakhs of patients available for researchers.
  • The NCG digitisation drive would also help epidemiological studies of cancers that are needed for governments to chart cancer-control programmes.
• About KCDO:
  • The KCDO has been set up by NCG, when Tata Memorial Centre and Koita Foundation formalised the collaboration by signing an MoU.
  • The KCDO will be critical in driving digital change across the cancer care ecosystem.
    • KDCO will help in digitally storing lakhs of scans of cancer patients.
    • This will assist NCG hospitals in sharing digital health best practices, implementing digital health tools and promoting various shared technological initiatives such as reporting and analytics.
    • This will also enable NCG and NCG hospitals to pilot and adopt new technologies - including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data, automation, cloud, mobile - which will benefit hospitals, doctors, patients and consumers.
    • It will help in embracing digital tools like tele-medicine and remote patient monitoring.
  • KCDO will also partner with academic and research organisations to promote R&D in cancer care.
• Significance:
  • KCDO can help NCG hospitals adopt the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) platform, which is a key national priority.
  • AI-assisted clinical decision support tools will help improve doctors’ ability to provide better care.
  • The use of healthcare data analytics across hospitals will allow for the tracking and benchmarking of clinical outcomes as well as the effectiveness of various treatment and care pathways.
  • Tele-medicine will help make cancer care more accessible especially in semi-urban and rural areas.