In rural India, illegible prescriptions aren't just a frustration, they're a crisis, causing widespread medical errors. With only one trained chemist for every 4000 people, and little access to digital tools, rural pharmacies were forced to guess critical healthcare decisions. To solve this, Alkem developed DawAI Reader: an AI-powered device designed specifically to decode handwritten prescriptions and read them aloud in regional languages.
The creative challenge lay in building complex AI technology into a simple, affordable, and trustworthy tool for digitally unskilled chemists. Convincing pharmacists to adopt it in a low-tech environment was equally critical.
The DawAI Reader successfully met its objectives: empowering chemists, improving prescription accuracy, and strengthening Alkem’s reputation in rural healthcare. The pilot reached 100,000 families across 250 villages, winning endorsement from chemists and healthcare associations alike, proving technology could bridge one of India's oldest, deadliest healthcare gaps.
