Incorporating AI’s Potential in Medical Equipment to Make Healthcare Coronavirus Proof
The non-stop rise in COVID-19 infection cases has fuelled the demand for high-fidelity healthcare equipment capable of sustaining good viable treatments. Technology plays a great deal in making medical equipment successful. We aren’t talking about anything futuristic but something that we have today to progress tomorrow. Artificial Intelligence or AI is that technology that is in use today and better research and experimental application will allow us to develop highly sophisticated medical equipment of tomorrow. AI services are already being used for distant screening and automated ventilators. The technology has been efficiently used for ophthalmologist-level performance at spotting retinal pathology while providing bespoke treatment for sepsis. Its previous success has ignited hopes in the health, engineering, and IT sector for using its unbeatable features in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coronavirus disease, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was acknowledged in China in December 2019 and declared a pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020. As of 15th April 2020, the pandemic has caused 1,26,681 deaths and 19,81,239 confirmed cases so far and the figures are still increasing exponentially. So, with countless lives and the economy at stake, many technology leaders have turned towards Artificial Intelligence.
AI Prediction of the Mysterious COVID-19 Infection
Prior to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO), AI predicted the possibility of a pandemic way earlier. A Toronto-based health surveillance company, BlueDot warned its people not to visit Wuhan, China after discovering the unknown virus. The company used ML algorithms to detect the data compromising livestock health, airline flight route, and health organisation reports that matched the SARS outbreak. Another, AI-based software InferVISION also showed signs of virus-caused pneumonia in suspected patients earlier.
Deployment of Automated Medical Equipment
The abundant flow of healthcare services, medical equipment, and resources are vital to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Several countries are using drones to confirm citizens are taking proper precautions, for dispatching aid like testing kits, medicines, food, and conducting thermal imaging. AI-backed solutions are helping in receded interpersonal contact while obviating a scarcity of medical staff.
AI incorporated big data helped countries to recognize the current and future need for ventilators that have proper breathing facilities. The research-backed by AI solutions helped countries to know their actual health potent and how everyone will suffer a miserable shortage of ventilators if the pandemic continues to grow.
This helped companies across the world to come together and develop mechanical ventilators to support existing and potential COVID-19 patients. Sphinx Worldbiz, an India-based engineering and IT Company with TimeTooth Technologies are to develop fully functional low-cost mechanical ventilators, the designs for which will be available on open source. The ventilators will be supplied to COVID-19 patients both in India and abroad as a philanthropic effort. A COVID-19 relief fundraiser has been initiated by TimeTooth Technologies to help support the cause. If you wish to support the fundraiser:
International donors may visit here
& Indian donors can visit here
Distant Monitoring
As it is known that COVID-19 can only be spread through social gatherings, AI in this matter becomes handy. Several countries are making their security personnel use a gun-like device, placed on the forehead at a public place to know if someone is at risk. The AI-powered non-contact sensor system can scan multiple people at a time with COVID-19 symptoms. Beijing’s Qinghe Railway Station uses Badu’s AI-backed scanner that scans 200 people per minute and notifies people with temperatures more than normal.
As the disease is contagious, almost every healthcare team is at high risk of getting infected from the deadly COVID-19, with such a distressing picture for tomorrow, AI can turn the tables and help in preventing and treating the situation more efficiently than the traditional technology and medical equipment. Tech giants like Alibaba are using AI-backed solutions that can detect COVID-19 patients with over 96% accuracy just in 20 seconds. Whereas, China government uses bots for faster diagnostic detection, and city ambulances are implanted with AI algorithms to speed through traffic. The whole world seems on a halt and technology is the only rescuer. Tech giants are sure that this isn’t all AI can do to help in reducing the COVID-19 effect, there’s a lot more that AI can do to keep diseases at bay while also developing better medical machinery for the healthcare providers.
