NCDC aims to deploy real time data, AI to boost disease surveillance

The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said that it is aiming to shift from traditional detective methods to a predictive model of disease surveillance by introducing artificial intelligence (AI), real time data analytics and digital intelligence platforms to strengthen public health security in India.

Citing experts, officials at the NCDC on Friday noted that the upcoming predictive model will integrate AI surveillance, laboratory intelligence, climatic data, population movement patterns and digital diagnostics to anticipate outbreak trajectories.

“The move builds upon the AI-based event surveillance systems already in use under the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP),” they added.

The Media Scanning and Verification Cell (MSVC) of the IDSP has been leveraging an AI-powered pipeline that scans millions of online news reports daily across 13 Indian languages, extracting structured health event data, including the disease type, location and scale.

The system has already processed over 300 million news articles since 2022, flagging more than 95,000 unique health-related events.

The shift to predictive surveillance will leverage these powerful analytical capabilities to forecast disease trends and enable intervention even before the first case is reported, marking a major stride in India's pandemic preparedness, an official said.

The proactive disease intelligence network aims to empower health authorities to detect early warning signals before clinical manifestation, rapidly mobilise resources and field teams and strengthen district-level risk mitigation.

“Further strengthening this transition, the newly established Metropolitan Surveillance Units (MSUs) under the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) have demonstrated real-time surveillance capabilities,” a senior NCDC official told Business Standard.