Srinagar, Jan 19: SKIMS Soura will host a landmark preparatory event of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 on January 22, marking Jammu and Kashmir’s first MeitY-approved, dedicated AI-in-healthcare summit focused on responsible innovation in the region collectively. Officials said the pre-summit event will be held as SKIMS Artificial Intelligence Summit 2026, the first dedicated AI-in-healthcare summit in J&K, officially affiliated and approved by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India, under the India AI Impact Summit 2026 framework. Speaking about the upcoming event, Director, SKIMS Soura, Prof Mohd Ashraf Ganie said the pre-summit will serve as a vital platform to deliberate on ethical, safe and impactful integration of AI in healthcare, with strong emphasis on patient safety, accountability, transparency and public trust. The event will bring together policy makers, clinicians, healthcare professionals, researchers and technology experts to examine how responsible AI can strengthen healthcare delivery, enhance patient outcomes and build future-ready health systems. The officials said the summit is being organised by Skill Development Unit, Centre of One Health SKIMS, in collaboration with DataLEADS and the Multidisciplinary Research Unit (MRU), SKIMS. “The summit will focus on the role of AI in enhancing diagnostics, improving patient safety, strengthening biomedical research, streamlining hospital operations, ethical governance, privacy and data protection,” they said. The key highlights of the summit include plenary panel discussions on AI in clinical medicine, diagnostics, hospital management and medical education, panel deliberations on data privacy, protection and ethical AI governance, responsible use of AI in hospitals, etc. The summit aims to identify SKIMS/Valley-specific operational challenges and explore pilot AI solutions to improve healthcare delivery systems, including triage optimisation, ICU monitoring, billing automation, bed management and hospital workflow optimisation They said that the summit aligns with key national initiatives, including Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), Digital India, IndiaAI Mission, and national and global participation. The summit will also be supported by the Information Technology Department, Government of J&K and National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS) as a partnering institution. Prof Digamber Behera, Padma Shri awardee and President, NAMS, a nationally renowned pulmonologist and medical leader, will attend the summit. Other eminent speakers from across India and abroad include experts from ICMR, AIIMS New Delhi, IIT Madras, IIT Mandi, KMMS (UK), PwC India, Denmark, DataLEADS and other institutions. As healthcare remains among the most impactful and sensitive domains for AI deployment, it requires contextual adaptation, strong ethical safeguards, and robust governance frameworks. Jammu & Kashmir, with its unique geographic and demographic characteristics and healthcare delivery challenges, offers an important setting to explore region-specific AI use cases aligned with national priorities. SKIMS officials said the event has been conceived as a sector-focused and evidence-driven Pre-Summit event designed to generate healthcare-specific insights and policy inputs, identify challenges, and propose AI solutions tailored for institutions like SKIMS and the broader healthcare ecosystem. The event is a flagship initiative of the Government of India, guided and overseen through high-level governmental mechanisms reflecting its strategic national importance to shape India’s AI trajectory in alignment with national development goals, ethical governance, and public good outcomes.