Containing COVID- 19 with digital technology, AI
RECENT studies suggest that Digital Technology ( DT) and Artificial Intelligence ( AI) could be effectively used to contain the Coronavirus disease ( COVID- 19) pandemic.
DT and AI have also proved to be effective in other aspects of pandemic response. In France, an artificial intelligence– based virtual phone assistant is able to respond to more than a thousand people at the same time. Italy is trialling use of an AI- based technology that utilises a smartphone app and camera to capture vital statistics such as heart rate, heart rate variability, oxygen saturation and respiration rate in real time. In Sweden, telemedicine has been used to support traditional care, particularly in rural settings, and is now being used for enhanced COVID- 19 response.
Indeed, digital technologies have proved to be powerful tools to fight COVID- 19. Critics, however, say these same technologies have exposed humans to a tsunami of information and have raised many issues around data protection and privacy.
Regional Director for Europe, World Health Organisation ( WHO), Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, in a statement titled “Digital health is about empowering people”, said: “… we need to get smarter in using the evidence and the information we have from our COVID- 19 surveillance systems to improve the only way we have to minimise transmission: find, isolate, test and care for every case. Trace and quarantine every contact.
“Here, digital technology can play a leading role, not least to support contact tracing. Austria, Georgia and North Macedonia are among the 27 countries that have released national solutions for digital contact tracing in Europe; with at least another four countries ( Andorra, Finland, Ireland, Portugal) having solutions underway.”
Kluge said digital helps health systems cope with delivery of essential health care, particularly during emergencies; but integrating digital health must be done carefully and wisely, in partnership with the public and patients.
He warned that digital tools rely on public trust. “Interventions must consider the privacy and security of individuals and their data. Fundamental human and gender rights must be preserved in digital environments and must not be forgone in times of a pandemic. It is the responsibility of governments to address data ownership, use, consent and protection,” Kluge said.
According to him, the world cannot afford to have people than cannot afford digital health. He said not all social groups are equally able to harness the potential of digital technologies to combat the virus. The WHO chief said, in the European Region, national data on household Internet access varies from 74 per cent to 87 per cent, with greater variation at subnational levels and between population groups. “We cannot afford a digital divide on top of the social and economic divide,” Kluge said.
So, three messages, according to Kluge, are: go digital, but go wisely; build trust by respecting privacy; and address the digital gap.
He said the full potential of digital health is yet to be realized and that it is about empowering people to make healthy life style decisions to create culture of health. “Ultimately, it is about leaving no one behind.”
Also, researchers suggest with the ongoing battle against the spread of COVID19, timely and accurate data can help governments stay ahead of new transmissions and flatten the curve.
As the COVID- 19 pandemic unfolds, IBM Research Africa and WITS University are actively developing machine learning- powered and cloud driven technologies to aggregate and understand data to yield insights which researchers, policymakers and governments can apply in their battle against coronavirus.
As part of this, IBM Research Africa, WITS University and the Gauteng provincial government have developed a powerful data- driven dashboard to help government make data- driven decisions when it comes to halting the spread of the virus. This dashboard gives health officials a clear, timely and accurate overview aimed at preventing the next hot spot from popping up.
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Italy is trialling use of an AI- based technology that utilises a smartphone app and camera to capture vital statistics such as heart rate, heart rate variability, oxygen saturation and respiration rate in real time. In Sweden, telemedicine has been used to support traditional care, particularly in rural settings, and is now being used for enhanced COVID- 19 response.