How technology is aiding in the fight against COVID-19
COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December of 2019. Since then, the virus has rapidly spread across the globe, with cases in over 100 countries. China immediately relied heavily on its strong technology sector to assist in the battle against the novel coronavirus. AI, technology used to track the pandemic, and data science were used to accelerate health care initiatives across the country.
With China’s success, tech startups are an integral part of COVID-19 task forces globally alongside clinicians, governmental entities and clinicians as the pandemic continues to spread.
The more advanced the tracking of the virus is, the better our nation will be able to battle against it. Analysis of breaking news and documents released by the government, along with social media analysis artificial intelligence is fully capable of detecting an outbreak. Tracing the risk of infectious disease by utilizing artificial intelligence is a service offered by several startups such as BlueDot. The company’s AI software detected the COVID-19 threat several days prior to the outbreak days before the CDC and WHO public warnings were issued in Canada.
The Tongji Hospital in Wuhan used AI to improve diagnosis procedures. The company Infervision launched an artificial intelligence solution that aids the front line health care workers in the detection and monitoring of the disease far more efficiently. Inside health care facilities across the United States, imaging departments are maximally taxed with the increase in their workload as a result of the virus. AI solutions can improve the length of time it takes for return on a CT diagnosis. Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, built an artificial intelligence-driven diagnosis system that it claims has a 96 per cent accuracy on COVID-19 diagnoses provided within a second.
The best avenue for getting medical supplies delivered where they are needed during a viral pandemic is drone delivery. In China, Terra Drone utilized its unnamed aerial vehicles for transportation of supplies and quarantine materials between the disease control centre in Xinchang County and the People’s Hospital. This provided for virtually contactless delivery.
In the wake of the pandemic’s critical effect on the United States, the federal government made a monumental move to relax the regulations and requirements for telehealth provision. The $2.2-trillion CARES Act made way for hospitals and clinicians across the nation to be able to provide telemedicine to patients with no additional cost to the patient outside of an office or prompt care/emergency room visit. With these changes, including HIPAA changes, patients have contactless access to their physicians by way of a phone call or a video visit.
Where physicians and clinicians were once leery of taking on telemedicine as a part of their practice, the virus has pushed this technology into the forefront and the synonymous reaction is that the option to see a physician remotely should remain once the virus has receded.
Some doctors and hospitals have IT departments that design and implement a telemedicine system specifically for their facility, or they investigate their existing EHR for compatibility with a startup.
In a health care industry that once made startups struggle to educate doctors and patients on the benefits of remote medicine through telehealth and telemedicine, those same startups are on the forefront and will very likely remain a mainstreamed option as an empowering choice for patients and a valued tool for clinicians globally.
The unfathomable crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the doctors and facilities, comfortable in the antiquated systems that have created a cumbersome infrastructure in the United States, to try anything possible to handle the steep demand for virtual health care provision.
The market of medical and financial technology has stepped forward to open the much-needed virtual world up to fill the needs of the health care industry in a time when the current structures are overwhelmed with the high amount of traffic. To think that our infrastructure will return to where it was when the novel coronavirus began its aggressive spread through our country would be taking a step backwards.
If we are to be ready for the time when (not if ) the next virus ravages the globe, the virtual aspects of medicine and business must be left in place. The IT professionals of the nation have stepped up and shown that technological advances need to be perfected and remain a priority for the future.