An Innovative AI Tool to Improve Health Care Delivery in Rural India

At a rural hospital in the Tamil Nadu region of India last summer, fourth-year Prithvi Parthasarathy led a multidisciplinary, AI-driven project that was more than just a research endeavor: It was a culturally meaningful experience that connected him with his family’s roots. It also further affirmed his career goal to improve health care delivery systems.

Supported by the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI) Summer Research Funds program, Parthasarathy—a neuroscience major in the School of Arts & Sciences from Malvern, Pennsylvania—interned at the Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, India, the core facility of a medical system providing ophthalmology care for rural and underserved communities in the Tamil Nadu region. The CASI Summer Internship enables Penn undergraduates to gain practical field experience while building cross-cultural appreciation.

Parthasarathy, whose parents are from Tamil Nadu, had illuminating interactions with patients and designed an AI tool to improve hospital-wide efficiency. “I’m really interested in not only being a physician but also bringing the health care system to the patients, and designing the system aspects as well,” says Parthasarathy, who serves as a patient navigator at Penn Medicine.

Intern Innovation: An Eye for AI

Due to high population density and patient volume, Aravind faces long wait times, overburdened staff, and inefficiencies with patient referrals. Parthasarathy, minoring in health care management and pursuing an accelerated master’s in bioengineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, leveraged his interdisciplinary Penn studies to help address systems-level issues and drive patient-centered solutions.

Parthasarathy started by surveying physicians and hospital administrators to identify the key issues that patients face during their visits, as well as observing how patients navigate hospital entry. He found that patients often arrive for general checkups but are routed to additional, unnecessary kiosks. In many other cases, patients report specific symptoms upon entry, only to be referred to the wrong specialists and testing areas.

“I wanted to chart out their exact path from A-to-Z in the general clinic from the moment they step into the hospital,” Parthasarathy says.

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