AI Has Potential To Reduce The Burden On The Healthcare Workforce: Health Secretary

New Delhi: Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava on Monday said that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to reduce the burden on the healthcare workforce while strengthening, not replacing, the physician–patient relationship.

She emphasized that digital systems enable the capture and transmission of information while AI enables its intelligent interpretation and action.

Srivastava chaired a high-level panel discussion on the theme “Scaling AI for Public Health Impact: Public-Private Partnership” at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.

The summit brings together global leaders, policymakers, industry experts, academia, and innovators to deliberate on the transformative potential of AI across sectors, with a special emphasis on inclusive and sustainable development.

Srivastava said that over the past decade, India’s health system has transitioned from basic digitisation of records and improved data reporting to building a nationally interoperable digital health ecosystem.

She recalled that the National Health Policy set the vision of achieving the highest attainable standard of health and well-being for all citizens, which was further operationalised through the National Digital Health Blueprint by promoting open standards, interoperability, privacy-by-design, and the adoption of emerging technologies, including Generative AI.

The health secretary highlighted that the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) has evolved into a robust digital public infrastructure for health, with over 859 million ABHA accounts linked to more than 878 million health records.

“With more than 1.80 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs operational across the country, digital platforms are being integrated at the primary care level. E-Sanjeevani, powered by AI-assisted Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS), has enabled over 449 million teleconsultations through more than 2.2 lakh registered healthcare providers, making it the world’s largest telemedicine initiative in primary healthcare,” she said.

Stressing the importance of collaboration, the Union Health Secretary invited industry and State representatives to share their experiences on working with government systems, improving procurement and data frameworks, and identifying AI solutions most useful in field settings.

Srivastava underscored that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s emphasis on digital public infrastructure as a tool for inclusion and equity continues to guide its digital health and AI journey, aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.

Dr Sunil Kumar Barnwal, CEO, National Health Authority, said that Artificial Intelligence can significantly enhance efficiency in healthcare delivery and enable faster, data-driven decision-making, particularly in large-scale public health programmes.

He emphasised that AI-powered analytics can strengthen beneficiary identification, streamline claims management, detect fraud, and monitor service utilisation, thereby improving transparency, accountability, and overall system performance.

Barnwal further underscored the importance of building interoperable digital platforms supported by strong data governance and privacy safeguards to ensure responsible deployment of AI solutions.

Highlighting the scale and complexity of national health schemes, Barnwal noted that technology-driven innovations are essential to optimise resource allocation, improve targeting of services, and achieve better health outcomes across the country.

The Health Ministry is also showcasing its digital health and AI initiatives at the India AI Impact Expo 2026 at Stall No 1.63 and 1.64, Hall 1, Bharat Mandapam. The initiatives include an AI-powered Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS), which enables structured, multilingual symptom capture through a patient assistance form and supports accurate, confident, and data-driven clinical decision-making.

The showcase also features BODH (Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI), developed by IIT Kanpur in collaboration with the National Health Authority, to enable the evaluation of AI models on diverse real-world datasets prior to population-scale deployment, thereby promoting trustworthy and responsible innovation in health AI.

Other initiatives on display include a Voice-to-Text AI model that converts a doctor’s voice into a digital prescription, seamlessly integrated into the existing HMIS workflow, and an AI-powered media surveillance system designed to generate early warning signals for disease outbreaks.