Manipal Hospitals has tapped Google Cloud to improve its virtual and remote care capabilities while leveraging AI to enhance patient experience. 

The partnership involves the deployment of the Amwell telehealth platform to enable virtual visits. Since 2020, Amwell has been Google's preferred telehealth partner to expand access to virtual care delivery worldwide. Google Cloud and Amwell are improving telehealth experiences through technologies that automate waiting room and checkout, provide automated language translation services, and intelligently triage cases.

Aside from powering virtual care, Manipal's partnership with Google Cloud also seeks to create a digital platform for ordering medicines and build remote patient monitoring capabilities.

Additionally, the partnership will also allow Manipal to use Google Cloud's conversational AI tools to improve patient interactions, such as appointment booking and searching for doctors.

WHY IT MATTERS

Manipal has engaged Google Cloud to help solve some of its pressing problems using innovative technologies while improving access to care and better anticipate the needs of their service population. Presently, it runs a chain of over 28 hospitals with more than 7,500 beds, making it one of the biggest healthcare providers in India.

This latest partnership also opens up an opportunity for Manipal to deliver high-quality care in underserved communities across India, especially in tier II and tier III areas, according to COO Karthik Rajagopal. 

THE LARGER TREND

Manipal has established recent partnerships to advance its remote care capabilities. Last month, it announced its partnership with UK-based Isansys Lifecare to put up a remote patient monitoring system. It has installed Isansys' Patient Status Engine device in its wards to continuously track the conditions of critical patients out of the ICU. It is now planning to expand the installation across all units of its hospital chain.

Early this year, Manipal tied up with Singapore-based health tech company ConnectedLife to deploy a virtual platform to remotely monitor the conditions of patients post-surgery.