Prime Highlights
- CMC Vellore and IIIT Hyderabad have developed BandhuCare, a multilingual AI platform that supports cancer patients between hospital visits.
- The platform uses verified medical information and safety checks to answer patient questions while helping doctors monitor symptoms more effectively.
Key Facts
- Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore is leading the BandhuCare project with IIIT Hyderabad, Revan AI, AIIMS Guwahati and PatientsEngage.
- BandhuCare currently supports eight Indian languages and is designed to improve communication between patients and healthcare providers without replacing clinical care.
Background
An alliance led by Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, in collaboration with IIIT Hyderabad’s Language Technologies Research Centre (LTRC) and others, has designed BandhuCare, an AI-driven multilingual platform intended to assist cancer patients between hospital visits. The platform assists patients in asking questions in their own languages and recording their symptoms via natural dialogues while informing doctors about their health status.
BandhuCare has been built to help bridge the communication gap faced by patients during treatment. The platform responds to patients’ queries based on hospital-certified medical information rather than generic information from the internet. It also motivates patients to communicate naturally to make it easy for them to describe their symptoms. Then AI translates these dialogues into clinical information, which is easily accessible for doctors.
In the case of the platform, RAG technology has been used, which means that its responses will be based on information provided by specialists. Moreover, an additional security measure is implemented: each answer is checked before being presented to patients. The platform cannot diagnose any disease or prescribe any treatment; however, it helps patients consult a specialist about their condition.
Furthermore, BandhuCare allows for patient journaling through both text and voice notes. It currently supports eight Indian languages and can also assist caregivers when patients are unable to speak or type.
The consortium includes CMC Vellore, IIIT Hyderabad, Revan AI, AIIMS Guwahati and PatientsEngage. The platform will first be tested with head and neck cancer patients at CMC Vellore. If successful, the team plans to expand its use to other cancers and chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and dialysis care.
