Due to its high transmissibility and no effective vaccine or therapy still available, COVID-19 is now a global pandemic. With the growing crisis day by day, companies & researchers over the world are looking for the ways to address the challenges of this virus and develop a cure for this disease. In a global pandemic, technology tools are lively weapons for effectively monitoring and controlling disease occurrence. Especially when containment is a challenge, technology can not only function as a good fortune for healthcare professionals, but also match the scale and speed at which the current pandemic requires treatment.
In spite of fast spread, people across the world are putting up a brave fight and using new-age technologies in this situation. Several start-ups are working inexhaustibly with clinicians, government entities, and academics around the world, intending to develop solutions that can improve the destruction. Here, the blog gives detailed insights on tech solutions companies are using to tackle the current pandemic.
Some of the prime challenges that has been widely considered around the world are:
- To prevent people from getting infected or passing on the infection.
- To maintain public safety, and public health in general, during an outbreak.
- To prevent avoidable community transmission of the coronavirus.
- Offering additional support for highly vulnerable groups of society.
Technological advancements have always came out as a boon for almost every industry, and when it comes to healthcare, the tech solutions are making it better day by day. Addressing the above mentioned challenges, Tech leaders like Alibaba, Baidu and Huawei have unified several healthcare initiatives.
Ways How Technology Serving the World From Deadly Coronavirus
- Remote Healthcare
As the pandemic intensifies, stakeholders are racing against time to implement remote healthcare solutions. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a proven and effective modality that can be used to monitor patients avoiding health care facilities and to care for recovering patients at home. There are several connected health platforms that allow doctors and patients to remotely engage via online conversational interfaces and digital medical assistance. Some of the most relevant solutions of remote healthcare are Telehealth, Mental health chatbots, Respiratory monitoring, Digital Stethoscope and Wearable sensors.
- Robot Nurses and AI Diagnosis
Robots are being used in hospitals in some countries to deliver food, medicine and other supplies to patients; to disinfect hospitals and other public areas; to check patients’ temperatures; and to answer common questions. This is gaining huge momentum and at this point Coronavirus is even being diagnosed using AI, which can read thousands of CT scans in 20 seconds with an accuracy rate of 96%. Also, robots are being used for patrolling and disinfecting.
- Use of Drones for Medical Supplies
Drone delivery is being considered as one of the safest and fastest ways to get medical supplies whenever they need to go during a disease outbreak like current situation. It has been noted that Terra Drone is deploying unmanned aerial drones to transport medical samples of people who are under quarantine. In addition, drones are also being used to patrol public spaces to keep a check on non-compliance to quarantine mandates and for thermal imaging.
- Tracking COVID-19 Patients Via App
Using wearable apps seems like a promising solution to accurately track the active COVID-19 patients in various states and districts. Considering the huge worldwide user base of wearable devices, it can be an effective solution to avoid contact with potentially infected people. From rings to wristbands, earpieces, and patches, wearable devices in their varied forms can provide continuous monitoring in a favourable manner.
In point of fact, several healthcare organizations in various countries have already launched wearable apps for the same purpose.
- Chatbots to Share Information
Sharing correct and valuable information during such crisis can actually make a difference to so many. Chatbots have also played an active role in sharing information with the travel and tourism sector to keep travelers up to date about the latest travel restrictions, procedures, and disruptions. Also, the two most authoritative voices of the pandemic, WHO and CDC, have also included chatbots in their websites to provide cutting-edge information to billions on the spread of the disease and its symptoms.
Wrapping Up
This pandemic is an unprecedented situation for everyone across the world. In such case, several mobile health, e-health, virtual care, remote health, and diagnostics startups and companies are able to respond quickly is encouraging. With thousands of deaths already happened, all of us expect to see many new companies offering technology-driven solutions to help wider number of people.
