Manipal Hospitals partners with Google Cloud to advance AI-driven digital healthcare

LAS VEGAS: Manipal Hospitals, one of India’s largest healthcare providers, recently announced that it is joining forces with Google Cloud to usher in a new era of AI-powered digital healthcare, a company press release has said.  

The partnership will involve the hospital leveraging cutting-edge artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, and secure cloud infrastructure from Google Cloud to drive operational efficiencies across the patient care value chain.

With support from Deloitte, Manipal Hospitals is using Google Cloud’s state-of-the-art technology to power its “ePharmacy” platform and AI-driven nurse handoff solution.

Manipal Hospitals’ results show that it has successfully reduced ePharmacy order processing time from 15 minutes to under 5 minutes and cut nurse handover durations from 90 minutes to just 20 minutes, the release said.

This enabled the hospital chain to reduce nurse handoff time by a staggering 78 percent, unlocking millions of minutes of caregiver productivity every month.

Karthik Rajagopal, Group Chief Operating Officer at Manipal Hospitals, said, “Google Cloud has been instrumental in helping us unlock high levels of scalability, performance, and security that are crucial for our operations. Without the burden of infrastructure management, our teams have been able to dedicate their time and expertise to solving critical business problems.”

Bikram Singh Bedi, Vice-President and Country MD, Google Cloud India, said, “At Google Cloud, we’re deeply committed to empowering healthcare providers with secure and scalable AI-powered solutions to support digital healthcare transformation. Our partnership with Manipal Hospitals aims to improve systemic inefficiencies, elevate patient experiences, and enhance healthcare accessibility —ultimately benefiting healthcare practitioners and patients across India.”

What is “ePharmacy”?

Built entirely on Google Cloud, Manipal Hospitals’ ePharmacy platform is setting a new standard for medication management and delivery. By integrating AI-driven automation, the platform ensures that patients receive their prescriptions faster and more efficiently than before. More specifics on the platform include:

1. AI-powered automation: The ePharmacy platform runs on Gemini on Vertex AI for precise drug information and seamless prescription processing. Formerly done manually, Manipal’s use of gen AI assists in the transfer of data from the pharmacy and diagnostic departments and minimizes the risk of transcription errors.
2. Real-time data flow: Manipal is using Google Cloud’s Cloud Healthcare API and Apigee API Management to help connect disparate systems, ensuring that data from ePharmacy transactions is error-free and instantly provided to patients post-consultation.
3. Enhanced user experience: Manipal is using advanced visual analytics capabilities in Looker to help monitor user behaviour and optimize cart management, delivery tracking, and ordering workflows – all in an effort to create the best user experience possible.
4. Scalability: Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) ensures uninterrupted service for the Cloud-based platform during periods of peak demand, enabling Manipal Hospitals to handle volume spikes in prescriptions with near-perfect accuracy.

More than 100,000 patients currently rely on the ePharmacy platform for both short-and long-term medication needs. With more than 60,000 data entries processed daily, doctors stand to gain valuable insights into patient trends, enabling better collaboration with pharmacists.

AI-Powered Nurse Handoff

The nurse handoff solution, powered by Google Cloud’s generative AI capabilities, is helping enhance communication, reduce errors, and ensure continuity of care. More specifics on the platform include:

1. Real-time data sharing: Because the solution is based on a unified data cloud, nurses can gain instant access to patient information, enabling smoother transitions and minimizing disruptions.
2. Intelligent workflow automation: Manipal has created streamlined processes, enabled by gen AI, that help reduce human error and improve clinical outcomes.
3. Patient experience: The nurse handoff solution helps create more efficiency for the hospital, leading to better care delivery and higher patient satisfaction rates.