T.N. govt. aims to bring advanced scanning facilities to all districts: Minister

Tamil Nadu Health Minister discusses plans to bring PET-CT scans to all districts, emphasizing importance of radiology in healthcare.

Health Minister Ma. Subramanian on Thursday said the Tamil Nadu government aims to bring advanced scanning facilities to each district of the State.

At the inauguration of the 77th annual conference of the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA), he said equipment for PET-CT scans, which played a vital role in early detection of cancer, were provided to seven government medical college hospitals in various regions of the State, giving the public easy access to the facility.

He added: “The government is keen on taking these advanced facilities to the rural people and the poor and needy. We had provided 35 new digital X-ray machines to government hospitals. Government medical college hospitals and headquarters hospitals have 43 MRI scans and 136 CT scan facilities.”

Talking about artificial intelligence (AI), Mylswamy Annadurai, former director, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said that while AI could augment the work of radiologists, it was not substitute for the nuance of judgment and empathetic communication that were the heart of patient care.

Gurdeep Singh, newly inducted president of IRIA, said time would tell whether AI was a boon or bane for radiologists. IRIA will have teaching and fellowship programmes in AI for its members in the future. V.N. Varaprasad, president, IRIA, C. Amarnath, organising chairman, and L. Murali Krishna, secretary general, IRIA, also spoke.