7/22/2021 5:22:47 PM
How Tech Is Saving Lives During COVID19 era?
Digital technology uses during the COVID-19 pandemic
As the COVID-19 pandemic relentlessly spreads globally, it has pushed healthcare systems to their limits and compelling governments and healthcare institutions to rethink their service delivery strategies.
In this baffling battle, science and technology are playing a vital role. For example, early in the outbreak, when China initiated its response to the virus, it focused on artificial intelligence (AI) by relying on facial recognition cameras to track the infected patients with travel history, robots to deliver food and medicines, drones to disinfect public places, to patrol and broadcast audio messages to public encouraging them to stay at home. AI has been used extensively to discover new molecules on the way to find aid for COVID-19. Many researchers are using AI to find new drugs and medicines for the cure, along with some computer science researchers focusing on detecting infectious patients through medical image processing like X-rays and CT scans. AI is even developing tracking software like monitoring bracelets that helps in the classification of people breaching the quarantine rule. Smartphones and AI-enhanced thermal cameras are also being used for detecting fever and infected people. Countries like Taiwan infused the national medical insurance database with inputs from the immigration and customs database, hence confronting the coronavirus patients based on their travel history and symptoms
In all, AI is used to identify, track and forecast outbreaks. It is helping in diagnosing the virus. It is used in processing healthcare claims. Drones and robots are used to deliver food and medicine supplies and sterilize public places. AI is helping to develop drugs and coronavirus vaccines using supercomputers
COVID Detection and Testing
Healthcare systems are tackling COVID-19 using digital technology to maintain core and critical clinical services. Virtual clinics are used as telemedicine consultations without physical crowding. The use of an AI-based chatbot helps recognize early symptoms in patients and start medication. The highly productive technologies for testing and detecting corona in hospitals and clinics are Io T devices integrated with AI, big data analytics, block chain technology, and deep learning systems. By implementing these technologies in the health care system, understanding model risk associations, prediction outcomes, and healthcare trends become more effective and efficient.
Quarantine and self-isolation
The indiscriminate lockdowns for infection control in several countries have had severe socioeconomic consequences. With digital technology, quarantine can be implemented in individuals who have been exposed to or infected with the virus, with less strict restrictions imposed on other citizens. Here are some examples:
China's quick response (QR) code system, in which individuals are required to fill out a symptom survey and record their temperature, allows authorities to monitor health and control movement. The QR code serves as a COVID-19 health status certificate and travel pass, with color codes representing low, medium, and high risk; individuals with green codes are permitted to travel unrestricted, whereas individuals with red codes are required self-isolate for 14 days. China also uses AI-powered surveillance cameras, drone-borne cameras, and portable digital recorders to monitor and restrict the gathering of people in public.
In Taiwan, electronic monitoring of home-quarantined individuals is facilitated through government-issued mobile phones tracked by GPS; in the event of a breach in quarantine, this so-called digital fence triggers messages to the individual and levies fines. In South Korea, individuals in self-isolation are instructed to download a mobile phone application that alerts authorities if they leave their place of isolation. In Hong Kong, people in self-isolation must wear a wristband linked through cloud technology to a database that alerts authorities if quarantine is breached. Iceland has launched a mobile phone solution to monitor individuals with COVID-19 and ensure that they remain in self-isolation.
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
Many of the technological changes imposed so rapidly on our health care systems by the pandemic have been positive and may be beneficial as we move forward. Will such measures become part of the new normal? Will it become a regular part of health care monitoring and understanding? It is our responsibility to ensure the legacy of this forced experimentation. Play your role, preserve the best, and do not go back to the old normal
By: Sara Ghorbani
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Technological impact of COVID-19
Technological impact of COVID-19
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