Cancer hospital likely to startnext year: Rane

Panaji: Health minister Vishwajit Rane said on Tuesday that state govt is pushing to make the planned cancer hospital operational before the end of 2027.

He said that instruments will be procured from Israel for the hospital, which would then be run in association with Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.

Rane said that over 1 lakh chest x-rays have been carried out using AI-enabled screenig across Goa, and that this has enabled the identification of thousands of critical lung nodules and reduced the diagnosis time by more than 50%.

“Goa is the first state in India to launch the AI-enabled lung cancer screening pilot, and we aim to review over 2 lakh chest x-rays by the end of this year,” said Rane. “We filed a proposal to make AI scanning a default alongside chest x-rays in all govt hospitals, ensuring early detection is accessible to all.”

Under a public-private partnership agreement with AstraZeneca and Qureai, AI is being used for lung cancer screening, integrated with the existing digital x-ray network, and conducts chest x-rays, CT scans, and follow-ups. The system helps flag potential signs on routine x-rays even when patients come in for completely unrelated issues.