Technology is an important element of all of our lives. It is taking center stage right now in the fight against coronavirus. AI and Big Data Analytics are leading the way in forecasting, diagnosing and more. Here are examples of technology in action.
The World Health Organization notified the public of a flu-like outbreak in China on January 9. BlueDot, a Canadian health monitoring company, had already warned its clients of the outbreak on December 31. The company uses an AI (Artificial Intelligence)-driven algorithm that scraps foreign-language news reports, forums and blogs, and announcements from public health officials. This enables the company to give its customers an early warning of possible outbreaks of Coronavirus in areas like Wuhan. By analyzing global airline ticketing data, BlueDot correctly predicted that the virus would go from Wuhan to Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo in the days following its initial outbreak by monitoring where the infected residents are headed next.
Artificial intelligence company Infervision launched a coronavirus AI solution that helps front-line healthcare workers detect and monitor the disease efficiently. Imaging departments in healthcare facilities are seeing increased workloads created by the virus. This solution improves CT diagnosis speed. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba also built an AI-powered diagnosis system they claim is 96% accurate at diagnosing the virus in seconds.
It’s not only the clinical operations of healthcare systems that are being taxed but also the business and administrative divisions as they deal with the surge of patients. A blockchain platform offered by Ant Financial helps speed up claims processing and reduces the amount of face-to-face interaction between patients and hospital staff.
One of the safest and fastest ways to get medical supplies where they need to go during a disease outbreak is with drone delivery. Terra Drone is using its unmanned aerial vehicles to transport medical samples and quarantine material with minimal risk between Xinchang County’s disease control centre and the People’s Hospital. Drones uses included patrolling public spaces, track non-compliance to quarantine mandates, and for thermal imaging.
Artificial intelligence is not going to stop the new Coronavirus or replace the role of expert epidemiologists. But speed matters during an outbreak. As the Coronavirus is circulating, there’s community spread. We want to spot those outbreaks quickly and intervene to keep them small. AI surveillance is becoming a useful tool in efforts to monitor and respond to the global outbreak.
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