The garbage data wall: Why India’s AI healthcare boom could stall before it starts

When a 34-year-old software engineer rushed to a Bangalore emergency room with chest pain last year, the AI diagnostic tool flagged her as ‘low risk’ for heart attack, because it had been trained almost entirely on data from male patients in their 50s and 60s. 

Hours later, she was in emergency surgery for a cardiac event the AI had missed. She recovered, but her near-miss illustrates a deeper crisis lurking beneath India’s healthcare AI boom, said a doctor based out of Bengaluru. 

From startups promising faster radiology reads to predictive analytics for chronic disease management, the industry has become a magnet for investor attention.