India’s National Health Authority (NHA) and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur have signed an MoU to develop a federated learning platform under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) that is expected to result in improved research, diagnosis, and clinical outcomes.

Operated and governed by the NHA, the platform will incorporate multiple machine learning model pipelines, an open benchmarking platform for AI models, and a secure consent management system for research under the ABDM.

By enabling the comparison and validation of AI models in healthcare against established benchmarks, while preventing statistical dredging, the platform is expected to help in quantifying and diagnosing diseases. The platform will also ultimately strengthen trust and efficiency of AI systems in clinical settings.