Explained: Prevented cancer in 2,050 women, detecting diseases many times faster than doctors. How did AI become a boon in treatment?
ABP Explainer: Under the Sanjivani Mission in Maharashtra, 2,663 women were screened. AI detected early signs in 2,050 women, who were treated promptly and prevented from developing cancer. How was this possible?
Will AI be able to cure every disease?
While artificial intelligence ( AI) is becoming a threat to jobs and children, the same AI has detected cervical cancer in 1,040 women in Maharashtra . Doctors say that because AI detected the disease early, all of them will recover. In
Question 1: How is AI proving to be a boon in the medical field ?
Answer: AI is a technology that teaches computers to think, learn, and make decisions like humans. It analyzes millions of medical data , such as X -rays, blood reports , genetic information , and patient histories, in seconds . For example, a doctor might spend hours reviewing a single patient's report, but AI can do this in a jiffy and reduce errors .
The American Medical Association's 2025 survey found that 66% of doctors now use AI tools , up from just 38% in 2023. Furthermore, 68% believe it improves patient care. This is a boon given the global shortage of healthcare systems, the shortage of doctors, the high number of patients, and the limited availability of facilities in rural areas.
AI not only enables early detection of diseases but also personalizes treatment. This means it creates a unique plan for each patient, something that was previously impossible. Here are five major benefits of AI in the medical field ...
- Disease Detection: AI can look at images from imaging tools like CT scans, MRIs , or mammograms to detect small abnormalities that the human eye might miss. According to a 2025 report in the Harvard Gazette , AI reduces false negatives in breast cancer screening by 17.6%. Similarly, in lung cancer, it detects small tumors with 92 to 98% accuracy . This is a boon because early detection of cancer makes treatment easier, with success rates exceeding 90%.
- Personalized medicine: Here, AI analyzes a patient's genes , lifestyle , and medical history to determine which medications would be best for them. According to a 2025 Stanford Medicine study , their MUSK model predicted patient survival with 75% accuracy across 16 types of cancer . This reduces the side effects of chemotherapy or surgery and makes treatment more affordable.
- Drug discovery:
In 2024-25, the Sanjeevani Mission was launched in Dharashiv district, Maharashtra , where rural areas have a large number of women but limited healthcare facilities. 2,663 women were screened , and AI detected pre -cancerous stages through Pap smear tests and imaging . Early symptoms were detected in 2,050 women, who, through timely treatment, were prevented from developing into cancer. According to the 2025 Tribune India report , Sanjeevani reached 600 million people in 700 days and generated 13 million digital engagements .
Similarly, in Punjab, AI-enabled devices launched in 2025 , such as Periwinkle 's smart scope for cervical cancer , which is radiation-free . Globally , Harvard 's OpenEvidence tool allows doctors to search medical literature in real -time, and UVA Health 's AI differentiates treatment effects in brain cancer surgery with 74% accuracy . These examples prove that AI is no longer limited to large hospitals , but is reaching rural areas. AI has made cancer detection 90% more accurate and drug discovery 50% faster .
But there are also challenges, such as data privacy and bias , which regulations like the European AI Act are addressing.
Question 2: What does AI do to detect diseases ?
Answer: AI can't diagnose diseases on its own like a magician . Instead, it acts as the fastest and smartest assistant to doctors. It learns by reviewing millions of old reports , photos, scans, and patient data , and then quickly detects diseases in new reports.
- Training: AI is first shown a large amount of data , just as a child is taught that apples are red and round. Similarly, AI is shown reports of millions of healthy and sick people , including X -rays, MRIs, blood tests , biopsy slides , and genetic reports . Each report lists which disease was present. For example, Tata Memorial Hospital has trained its AI using data from over 500,000 cancer patients over the past 20 years .
- Practice : When a new patient comes in, the AI looks at their report. It compares it with millions of previous reports in seconds and says, "This report matches that disease 96% of the time" or "This is completely normal ."
Other than this...
- AI actually looks at images from X -rays, CT scans, MRIs, and ultrasounds to see if a small lump in the lung, a 3-4 mm tumor in the breast , or swelling in the brain is visible to the human eye, so the AI highlights it .
- The AI reads the digital photos of the tiny cells that are seen to confirm cancer in 30 seconds and tells what percentage of the cells are cancerous.
AI never makes decisions on its own. It always shows the report to the doctor and says, "I have this much doubt , please take a look." The doctor makes the final decision. This greatly reduces the chance of error .
Question 3: Can AI detect every type of disease?
Answer: No. AI cannot currently detect every type of disease. It is very powerful , but still has limitations. AI can detect these diseases with up to 90 % accuracy .
- Cancers like breast , cervical , lung, mouth, prostate , skin, colon etc.
- TB by chest X -ray .
- Heart diseases like ECG or Echo from CT Angiography .
- Diabetic eye disease.
- Stroke and brain hemorrhage can be detected by CT scan or MRI .
- Lung diseases like pneumonia and Covid .
- Early stages of Alzheimer's with MRI .
- Photo-induced skin cancer and fungal infections .
AI is performing better or even better than doctors in all of these areas . In India, companies like Apollo , Tata Memorial , AIIMS, QURE.AI , and Niramai are using it on thousands of patients every day.
Question 4: So, can AI test results be completely trusted?
Answer: No. AI test results cannot be trusted 100 % yet. The final decision should always be made by a doctor. AI can be trusted up to 90 % for checking mammograms for breast cancer , Pap smears for cervical cancer , and X -rays for lung TB or cancer .
At the same time, AI can also make mistakes in these matters...
- The patient's skin may be very dark or very fair. Mistakes can sometimes occur in skin cancer photos.
- The scan is too old or of poor quality .
- It may be a very rare type of cancer, for which AI has received less data .
- If a patient has 2-3 diseases simultaneously, AI sometimes leaves out one.
- Low light in the photo taken with mobile in the village can also give wrong results .
According to a large study by The Lancet Digital Health in 2025 , AI has an error rate of 2 % to 8% . AI is the world's fastest and smartest assistant , but not a doctor.
Question 5: Will healthcare become increasingly dependent on AI in the future ?
Answer: Yes, healthcare will become heavily dependent on AI , but the doctor with a heart and mind will never disappear. Scientists predict that by 2030-2035, AI will be able to diagnose 80-90% of diseases very well, thanks to rapidly growing data and the emergence of new technologies ( multimodal AI) . However, diagnosing every disease 100% accurately may never be possible, as some diseases are very complex and even the human brain has yet to fully understand them.
At the same time, in a new research in India, such an AI framework has been developed , which can read the complex activities happening within the cancer cells and tell what is the reason for the growth of the tumor and which dangerous processes are active in the patient's body.