Huge healthcare collaboration potential between India-US: Dr Naresh Trehan

India and the US have a "huge potential" for collaboration in healthcare across segments such as AI and technology, drug development and medical hardware, world-renowned cardiovascular and cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Naresh Trehan said.

"We are now in a stage where I think the time has come... It's India's time. I'm gung-ho myself, I would say that anybody... looking at India should move, don't waste anymore time because the opportunities are huge," Trehan, Chairman and Managing Director of Medanta and a Padma Bhushan awardee, said during a conversation here last week.

The event was hosted by the Consulate General of India in New York here last week titled 'Healthcare in a Developed India 2047'.

The Consulate said that the key highlights of the event included a vision to make high quality healthcare universally accessible and affordable; India's rising corps of highly trained medical and allied-health professionals.

Strong emphasis on pharma innovation and research; transformative role of AI in diagnostics and healthcare delivery; India's immense potential in medical tourism and expanding opportunities for IndiaUS collaboration in AI-driven health solutions and next-generation medical technologies.

Outlining the opportunities for collaboration in healthcare between India and the US, Trehan pointed out areas such as Artificial Intelligence, technology, drug development, medical hardware as well as medical tourism where the two nations can join forces. US-India, huge potential for collaboration, he said.

On AI, Trehan said that the algorithms have become so powerful today that analysis can be compressed, data can be mined in 1,000th of the time that it used to take.

"If that's the power of AI, you can actually see how you can convert it into delivery of healthcare and also predicting healthcare. That's one thing that India is still to catch up, and I think US has a huge role to play because no matter where the origin of AI is or IT (information technology) is, US is the one that actually has the bandwidth to convert it into actual functioning modules, he said.

Trehan however emphasised that AI is going to play a major role but it needs validation as we go forward. It's not like it's the holy grail. It's not, he said.

He further said that 70 per cent of all the IT is written in India, which is then converted into MRIs and CT scans and the most powerful machines in the world. It's all written in India, but the finished product comes from elsewhere, he said, drawing an analogy from the British rule when cotton grown in India was used to manufacture British textiles.

Stressing on the need for collaboration in pharmaceuticals, Trehan said, Now what we have to do is to actually build partnershipsIndia needs to go up the value chain and take it to a level where we utilize our own with the help of wherever we can find help. It's not that... you can do everything yourself, you don't have to, he said.

India has the population to actually develop drugs much faster than anywhere in the world because we have a very diverse gene pool, Trehan said.

This diverse gene pool that India has is of immense value, he said adding that there is great opportunity for drug development in India.

"That's the collaboration we need to do more and more. It's happening a little bit. There are some people who are doing a lot of research on cancer... in India. But it can actually be accelerated, because a lot of knowledge exists in America and in countries like Germany.

As India moves towards the goal post of Viksit Bharat' by 2047, Trehan underscored the need for more doctors and nurses to cater to the needs of a nation of 1.4 billion people.

We make 80,000 doctors a year. We need to produce 160,000 if you want to take care of our 1.4 billion population, which is increasing by the day, he said.

Indians have been blessed with the best brain anywhere in the world...The world is for India to take, I truly believe it but we really need to organize ourselves. Today, the leadership actually inspires the fact there will be some sort of policy stability because if the rules change every day, it's very difficult to put confidence in any place, he said, pointing to the progressive policies being put in place. "I think the opportunity has actually increased hugely, he said.