How Technology is Helping in this Pandemic?

With high transmissibility and no effective vaccine or therapy, COVID-19 is now a global pandemic. COVID-19 is unlike any other crisis which is impacting the entire world. Governments across the world are trying to ensure the safety of their citizens and provide support to people affected. Over the past few months, we have seen how digital technology helps in the fight against COVID-19 (corona virus). 

In this emergency, technology is making it easier to connect with each other, to provide medical facilities, etc. Technologies are not only helping us to fight the pandemic but may in the future, change how we deal with such situations. Digital tools such as telehealth, cloud computing, robots and AI-based chatbots are playing a key role in limiting the outbreak of COVID-19. 

Here are some examples in which technology has been used to help against COVID-19:

Tracking

This is the most commonly used technology by governments. Tracking people's location provide the information about the movements of an infected person before being quarantined and the about the people who may have been in close with the patient. It tracks disease activity in real time. It allows visual depiction of spread; directs border restrictions, guides resource allocation, informs forecasts. Tools are used such as migration maps, which use mobile phones, mobile payment applications, and social media to collect real-time data on the location of people.

Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are playing an important role in minimizing exposure to the people. Mobile payment apps are reducing the fear of transmission through paper money. Delivery apps are offering contactless delivery at your doorstep without any physical contact. 

Screening for infection

High-performance infrared thermal cameras set up at the entries of workplaces, airports are used to measure the temperature of people in real time and rapidly detecting individuals with fever. Artificial intelligence which are being used is this are digital thermometers, mobile phone applications, thermal cameras, web-based toolkits.

Business continuity

A big challenge during this pandemic has been not being able to work in the same way as before. Businesses have quickly adopted work-from-home policies, using online meeting softwares and collaboration platforms to clock in and ensure employees stay home and continue operating business as usual.

Contact tracing

Identifies and tracks individuals who might have come into contact with an infected person. Many countries implemented tools for contact tracing, using security camera footage, facial recognition technology, bank card records, and global positioning system (GPS) data from vehicles and mobile phones to provide real-time data and detailed timelines of people's travel and people who could have been in contact with infected individuals are instructed to report to testing centres and self-isolate.

Robot nurses and AI Diagnosis

Coronavirus is even being diagnosed using AI, which can read thousands of CT scans in 20 seconds with an accuracy rate of 96%. Robots are being used in hospitals in many countries to deliver food, medicine and other supplies to patients; to disinfect hospitals and other public areas; to check patient's temperatures. 

Technology in Clinical Care

AI can facilitate rapid diagnosis and risk prediction of COVID-19. Virtual care platforms, using video conferencing and digital monitoring, have been used worldwide to deliver remote health care to patients as a means of reducing their exposure to COVID-19 in health-care institutions.

1) Breathing equipment: Breathing apparatuses are vital to treat patients with advanced respiratory issues due to COVID-19. Patients are given oxygen through Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices have avoided the need for invasive mechanical ventilation. But many countries around the world have been faced with a critical shortage of this much needed equipment.

2) Contact tracing: Tracking the spread of the virus has so far shown to be an effective way of containing the spread of the disease. Mobile phone contact tracing apps have been launched in various countries.

3) Patient care: The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has surpassed 2 million people. While not every person needs to be treated in hospital, the number of patients is putting extraordinary strain on medical staff around the world. Technology can perform Diagnoses infected individuals, monitors clinical status, predicts clinical outcomes, provides capacity for telemedicine services and virtual care. A cloud-based AI-assisted CT service is used to detect COVID-19 pneumonia cases in China. This technology processes CT images in seconds, differentiating COVID-19 from other lung diseases and speeding up the diagnostic process substantially.

The End Notes

In a global pandemic, technology tools are vital weapons for effectively monitoring and controlling disease outbreaks, as humans simply cannot operate and match the scale and speed at what AI powered machines can operate. That's all in this article. I hope you liked it. Please comment your views and suggestions.