Zydus Hospitals and Medtronic Collaborate to Launch India’s First Indigenous AI-Based Stroke Care Network in Gujarat

Zydus Hospitals, Ahmedabad, and India Medtronic Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT), announced their partnership to support stroke patients in Gujarat via a hub and spoke network. As part of the partnership, Medtronic will collaborate with Zydus Hospitals to build an ecosystem that can help in timely diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients by facilitating the use of indigenous AI-enabled technology and providing tools and technologies to support the education and training of doctors in select remote hospitals.

In India, nearly 1.8 million patients are affected by stroke each year.¹ In the bigger cities with improved healthcare infrastructure, patients stand a better chance of proper diagnosis, followed by the requisite treatment. However, in the peripheral & rural settings, the challenges are aplenty. The partnership will serve the people of peripheral Gujarat by helping them deal with stroke as a disease effectively. The hub and spoke system works on an advanced AI capable of interpreting a CT scan for a stroke. A team of stroke experts at Zydus hospital (hub) would visualize the CT scan performed at the remote hospital (spoke) and handhold the local physician on further patient management. This way, the physician at the remote hospital is empowered to decide on the future course of action basis the patient's needs and the patient receives the right treatment at the right time.

Dr. V N Shah, Mentor & Senior Endocrinologist & Metabolic Physician, Zydus Hospitals, stresses the need for a greater patient-centric approach. He says, “Medicine as a profession revolves around the patient. The patient-centric approach will take us on the path of constant improvisation. Stroke is a big disabler in developing countries like ours. Treatment of any disease starts with quick and efficient detection; the launch of peripheral stroke centers will enhance the survivability of our patients.”

Michael Blackwell, Vice President, Medtronic India said, “At Medtronic, we’re accelerating the development of technologies that can help patients manage their disease while living their lives to the fullest. We’ve been consistently partnering with hospitals across India to advance our vision of transforming stroke care for patients in India. Through these collaborations, together we are able to integrate technology to address local healthcare barriers across the care continuum.”

Dr. Kalpesh Shah, Senior Consultant, Endovascular Neurosurgery, Zydus Hospitals emphasizes on the fact that “Brain is a complex organ, so are the diseases associated with it. Often stroke & brain hemorrhage lead to disability which is not just limited to the patient but the adverse effect is equally felt by the family and the household. Timely diagnosis of the disorders with the use of AI even when you are miles away from the specialist hospital can be a life saver enabling guided treatment to start immediately under expert supervision.”

Dr. Dipak Patel, Senior Consultant, Neurosurgery, Zydus Hospitals opines “Brain stroke may occur in the form of infarction or hemorrhage. Treatment within first six golden hours has a greater impact on outcomes in the case of infarction or hemorrhage. Removal of blood clot to open up the closed blood vessel and emergency surgery for hemorrhage or infarction is associated with good outcomes in such patient.”

Dr. Arvind Sharma, Senior Stroke Neurologist, Zydus Hospitals says “80% of strokes are preventable & time is brain. If you keep hypertension, diabetes & obesity in check, and stop smoking, the chances of stroke can drastically reduce. If anyone has stroke symptoms, right diagnosis and optimal treatment within the golden hour is paramount. Creating a network of remote stroke centers will bridge the care gap.”

Dr. Ajit Sowani, Senior Neurologist, Zydus Hospitals said, “In stroke, the most important course of treatment is to remove the block in the brain as soon as possible- and must be done within 24 hours from the onset of symptoms. The turnaround time is crucial in such a situation and the AI-driven technology helps clinicians to fast-track the next steps of treatment addressing critical patient diagnosis.”