How AI can help us to survive the epidemics of the future

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed serious health problems in each country of the world, including the most diverse. Countries has their own set of problems and their causes, but its diversity is reduced because of the inefficient usage of resources. From the national level to the management of a particular hospital.

In a normal situation, these problems are not so painful, but in a pandemic, when the burden on the health-care system increases by order, each percentage of efficiency becomes critical. At the local hospital level, AI will help physicians in a crisis situation to prioritize the medical care for too many people (a typical pandemic situation), that may significantly improve the ammount of patients survival. In addition, it will speed up and optimize the preparation of treatment plans, as well as “take over” part of the diagnosis of diseases.

At a higher level of leadership, AI will facilitate the timely identification of problem regions and improve the forecasting of pandemic development. This will allow for a more efficient distribution of resources (both material and personnel) between regions and hospitals. As a result, doctors in problem regions will have more opportunities, which, in addition, they will be able to take advantage of more effectively than at present. In other words, the surge of interest of using artificial intelligence in public health against the backdrop of an evolving pandemic is reasonable and justified. Although, as usual, it would have been better for all of us if that interest had arisen earlier.