Bangalore, 15^th December, 2020: On occasion of Aster DM Healthcare’s 34^th Foundation Day, the organization has announced to donate 10,000 medical investigations in the next 1 year across India and GCC. The initiative, to be run by Aster Volunteers, the CSR arm of the organization, tackles the immediate need faced by many patients, underprivileged or under financial distress, in accessing much-needed medical investigation which would help them seek proper diagnosis and accurate treatment, but are deterred by high costs. This often leads to patients avoiding seeking the needed medical attention or late-stage diagnosis when the disease would have progressed to serious complications.

Speaking on the initiative Dr. Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman and Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare said, ‘‘We often come across many patients who require expensive investigations like CT Scans and MRIs for diagnosis of serious illnesses. Unfortunately, some of them are unable to carry out the investigations due to financial constraints. The sad part is that they could have been saved by the timely investigation with better treatment. This initiative will help such patients by providing high end investigations free of cost through Aster Volunteers.’’

The medical investigations to be provided include MRI and CT Scan procedures. Detailed list of the medical investigations to be provided by Aster Hospitals in India and GCC can be found on the Aster Free in website along with the details of the application process. Any needy patient seeking to avail an investigation can reach out to the respective facility in each country and also apply on the website, along with supporting documents. At the same time, needy patients can be referred by doctors (internal & external), NGOs, support groups, medical colleges/ authorities to the nearest Aster unit offering the free investigation in a particular country.

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Bangalore, November 06, 2020 – Aster Labs, the diagnostics arm of Aster DM Healthcare, a leading healthcare service provider in the country, has introduced US FDA approved digital pathology solution by Philips Intellisite Pathology Solutions for primary diagnosis at its state of the art reference lab located at Queens Road in Bangalore and at Aster Medcity in Kochi. With the inclusion of this cutting-edge technology, Aster Labs is looking to completely digitize its histopathology workflow and will be taking a step towards building a networked pathology system in the country. The decision to implement digital pathology solutions at its centers is an important milestone for the brand as it further strengthens its commitment towards making world-class diagnostics accessible to every Indian.

As the incidences of chronic and complex diseases such as cancer have been on the rise in recent years, the need and demand to revamp the pathology industry in the country is now being realized more than ever before. Technology, both in the field of scanning and IT, has now finally met the necessary standards for digital pathology, in terms of software maturity and network, computing, and storage capability. Digital pathology, thus, now has the potential to provide solutions to the immediate implications of our patient care as well as the digital workflow. It can efficiently eliminate issues with handling material and could detect abnormalities as they occur. Hence, with digitization, Aster Labs will be looking to streamline its workflow, sharpen its diagnostic processes and facilitate greater partnerships, and collaboration among all its stakeholders regardless of location.

Speaking on this initiative, Dr. Harish Pillai, CEO, Aster Hospitals and Clinics, India, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact across industries and healthcare in particular. Currently, every aspect of the industry from diagnosis to treatment is undergoing tremendous change. This has created an urgency in the healthcare industry, to look for innovative solutions and efficient application of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning. Pathology is one such area that stands to greatly benefit from the inclusion of disruptive technologies. Therefore, with Digital pathology, we are taking a step towards the future on a digital cockpit that will enable precision diagnostics at Aster Labs. Our ultimate clinical objective with digitization is to ensure the right patient case reaches the right subspecialty histopathologist all the time, at the fastest possible time.”

Sharing his views, Mr. K.R. Jayaprakash, Chief Operating Officer, Aster Labs, said: “This advanced technology platform, will not only improve our Turn Around Time (TAT) and bring in efficiency in the reporting system but will also aid our histopathologist in accessing the traditional cases like Appendix and Hysterectomy, etc. irrespective of their location. The best advantage of this technology is that several people can review the slides at the same time, in separate geographies, and through a combination of expert opinions, the team can arrive at the best conclusion that would benefit the patient and will assist them with accurate diagnosis. This will also ease the concern of collateral implications which is often faced by the patents due to human errors. ”

Along with the implementation of digital pathology solutions across all its centers, Aster Labs also plans to build a value-based pool of talent of general histopathologists and aims to become a CoE (Centre of Excellence) for sub specialty FTR (First Time Right) reporting and other advanced sub specialties like transplant pathology, dermatopathology, neuropathology, and renal pathology, etc.

Aster Labs also plans to bring in digital storage of images that can be stored for a period of 24/48/72 hours and will be charged as a premium service to patients and referral clinicians. It will offer this service, as part of our “We will Treat you well “mission. Furthermore, R&D activities including AI-based algorithms on Whole Slide Images ( WSI )  and promotion of academic events are also on the cards of Aster Labs for expanding the capabilities of its digital pathology platform.

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