Healthcare: how this crisis will change our lives forever

by Margarida Sottomayor

As Albert Einstein once said, “in the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity”. I truly believe COVID-19 is no exception.

Sociologically, there is no doubt our behaviors will change. We have learnt to appreciate things we once took for granted; some learnt tools they had never felt the need to explore (e.g., videoconferences); some found new hobbies and passions; some got to spend more time with their family, specially their kids and have reorder their priorities.

However today I am going to write about the impact in Healthcare, Science and Innovation. History has proven time and time again that wars drive innovation. Well, what we are living today is in some way a battle against an invisible opponent, and innovation has already started to emerge.

There was no Healthcare System in the world prepared to face such a pandemic. No matter how modern and resourceful they were, the fast spread and severeness of this disease called for a rapid response and ability to adapt quickly.

Hospitals are using AI to battle COVID-19 in multiple ways and across several stages of the treatment.

Early warnings

One of the main concerns when countries first started facing this battle was to understand the surge in demand and avoid a flood of COVID patients that could swamp hospitals. Knowing that the virus is extremely contagious the last thing hospitals needed was a concentration of healthy and unhealthy people all in the same place. While in the past there was reluctance in using telemedicine, now it was more than ever needed. However, the existent hotlines were not prepared to face such an increase in calls volume. Across the globe several tools were launched to assist patients, clinicians, and anyone else with COVID-19 related questions and concerns. Patient self-triage was of the utmost importance, and the use of interactive voice response system and chatbots were key to optimize efficiency and accuracy. Online screening and triage tools were implemented worldwide to rapidly identify potential COVID-19 patients and ultimately allowing for delivering care at scale and safely.

Tracking and prediction

AI is also being considered as a tool to identify patients who will need intensive care before their condition rapidly deteriorates. The challenge here has been the smooth incorporation of these tools into hospital operations. Stanford clinicians and researchers expect using a new algorithm to trigger clinical steps. The model they are using was already in place and marketed by a large electronic health records vendor, Epic to assess the Deterioration Index on a wide range of other medical conditions. It is my belief that if proven successful in identifying COVID-19 deterioration probability, there will be less and less skepticism in adopting this tool at a larger scale for other conditions in the future.

Other AI initiatives have spread worldwide. In China, AI powered sensors are being used to support triage in crowded places. Baidu has developed a contactless infrared sensor system to identify individuals with fever. I find it particularly interesting to observe if China will be willing to export these technologies and how open the Occident will be to adopt it.

Diagnosis and treatment

Also in China, AI-driven CT scan interpreters are being used when radiologists are not available and robots deliver medicine and food to patients to alleviate healthcare personnel exposure to the virus. To me this approach feels very impersonal. Exceptional times call for exceptional measures. In overwhelmed hospitals like those in Italy and Spain, this approach might be considered but in the long-term I doubt it will be implemented at scale in hospitals after this crisis. However, I believe that after this experience, people will be slightly more open to it, than they used to be.

All in all, I believe COVID-19 has made us all more open to technology in general. We are now becoming comfortable using it in fields we were particularly skeptical. Going forward it is my conviction that some of our recent discoveries will become part of our lives.

#CBSDigitalLiteracy