About Us
About Koita Centre for Digital Oncology (KCDO)
KCDO helps NCG and NCG affiliated hospitals adopt digital health tools, drive collaboration and create digital transformation roadmaps, with the objective of improving the quality, affordability, accessibility and outcomes of cancer care to patients. The vision of KCDO is closely aligned with NCG’s vision to deliver uniform cancer care, drive cancer research and reduce costs of cancer care across India.
KCDO enables NCG and NCG hospitals pilot and adopt new technologies - including AI/ML, big data, automation, cloud, mobile - which benefit hospitals, doctors, patients, and consumers. Embracing digital tools like tele-medicine and remote patient monitoring make care more accessible especially in semi-urban and rural areas. AI-assisted clinical decision support tools help improve doctors’ ability to provide better care, and mobile patient engagement apps help patients with medication management and better compliance to care guidelines. Similarly, use of healthcare data analytics across hospitals enables tracking and benchmarking of clinical outcomes and effectiveness of different treatment and care pathways. KCDO supports NCG in driving common digital initiatives across NCG hospitals including EMR adoption, healthcare data interoperability, reporting , and analytics. In addition, KCDO partners with academic and research organizations to promote research and development in cancer care.
KCDO was established in August 2022 with support from the Koita Foundation, a not-for-profit organization focused on accelerating digital health adoption in India. As part of its digital health initiatives, Koita Foundation partners with many government and NGOs. It has also established the Koita Centre for Digital Health (www.kcdh.iitb.ac.in) at IIT Bombay, that focuses on academic programs, research, and industry collaborations in Digital Health.
MOU between National Cancer Grid,
Tata Memorial Centre and Koita
Foundation, August 2022
KCDO Goals and Objectives
To achieve its vision to leverage digital health technology and enhance cancer care in India,
KCDO has well defined goals and objectives:
Quality
Leverage digital technology to improve cancer treatment workflows and patient experience e.g., clinical quality measures, guideline adherence, patient engagement, AI/ML
Affordability
Identify areas for cost reduction using digital health technology, data sharing etc., to make cancer care more affordable e.g., automation, cost of care benchmarking
Access
Leverage digital technology to improve access to high-quality cancer care esp. in non-urban / rural areas e.g., tele-medicine, remote patient monitoring
Productivity
Leverage digital tools and automation to improve the clinical and administrative workflows, reducing the manual and redundant activities
Best Practices
Identify and share India/global best practices in digital technology across NCG hospitals e.g., evidence-based care, clinical outcomes, patient engagement
Research & Development
Partner with healthcare start-ups, industry bodies and other organizations to drive R&D in cancer, and to help monetize research in NCG
Alignment with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and National Initiatives
India has embarked on an ambitious national initiative to use digital tools to improve health. The National Health Authority (NHA) is rolling out the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) platform across the country. ABDM will be a strong enabler for creating individual patient records, sharing health information with doctors and healthcare facilities and driving use of e-claims. This will benefit all stakeholders – consumers, patients, doctors, hospitals and other healthcare organisations (including labs, pharmacies, and health insurance), and transform healthcare across the country. Once rolled out, ABDM’s impact on healthcare will be very significant – like the impact of Aadhar and UPI on India.
KCDO and NCG have unique opportunity to play a pivotal role in driving digital technology adoption for cancer care. By aligning with ABDM and national government digital health programs, KCDO and NCG will have a lasting positive impact on all stakeholders in cancer care – doctors, hospitals, healthcare providers and most importantly patients and citizens.