COVID-19: AI to the rescue..?

13/3/2021

It has now been over year since we all first heard the words 'Coronavirus' and 'COVID-19', with the impacts and dangers still being felt across the world. As we remain in the midst of the global pandemic, there may be fresh hope on the horizon for stopping the spread of the deadly virus, in the form of Artificial Intelligence...

The potentials of using peoples data with technologies such as AI and ML, to advance in healthcare initiatives, is still a fairly evolving field and to the general public, often a dubious one, mainly around who has the controls and rights to view and/or use our data. [3]

However - when done ethically, i.e. consistent of data consent, for example - the advantages of utilising the tools of technology to aid efficient and effective results in progressing healthcare prove to be increasingly beneficial.

Between August 2020 and November 2020, Greece used a Machine Learning programme called EVA, which used recent COVID-19 tests results, collected at the Greek border, in order to attempt to detect and then limit the amount people who are COVID-19 asymptomatic from arriving into the country. This involved every person planning on arriving into Greece to fill out a 'Passenger Locator Form', which included information to where they had recently travelled. Once submitted, travellers where given a QR code to allow for tracking. EVA's algorithm processed the forms information in order to identify those who need to be tested for COVID-19. Deployed across all Greek borders, it is claimed that this approach helped to contain the number of cases and deaths in Greece. [2]

According to the projects paper, 'Deploying an Artificial Intelligence System for COVID-19 Testing at the greek Border' ; "EVA allocates Greece’s limited testing resources to (i) limit the importation of new cases and (ii) provide real-time estimates of COVID-19 prevalence to inform border policies."

EVA is described by the papers author and project collaborator, Hamsa Bastani, a Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions and affiliated faculty at Analytics at Wharton, as a framework that is built for "sequential decision making".

EVA's random surveillance approach was able to identify when a country was exhibiting a spike in COVID-19 nine days earlier than would have been possible using only publicly available data. It is an open source technology, with the team behind it willing to provide EVA free of cost, to any country who may wish to use it. [3]

"While the human brain can process only so much information at a time, machines are whizzes at finding subtle patterns in huge amounts of data, and they are being deployed against covid-19 — the disease caused by the coronavirus — in ways only imagined in the past. Data scientists are aiming AI at some of the coronavirus’s biggest mysteries — why the disease looks so different in children vs. adults, what makes some people “superspreaders” while others don’t transmit the virus at all — and other, lesser questions we have made little headway in understanding."[4]

Not to be too diminutive of the capabilities of the human brain, there is a point to be made when it comes to processing efficiency, and to who, or what, can deliver the most reliable conclusions. Moreover, in the cases of a deadly virus which has the capabilities to infect and spread as rapidly as the Coronavirus does, time in configuring solutions is undeniably of the essence.

Is this a moment where we must accept - (and trust) - AI to aid us in getting the answers we require, and at the speed that will better protect more lives?

"It can help healthcare workers more quickly and accurately diagnose cases. It can empower public health experts to quickly measure the effectiveness of defensive steps taken to slow the disease spread. And it can aid in the effective distribution of emergency resources."[5]

It was through using technology to analyse medical records that it was discovered that experiencing a lack of taste and smell - something which had been reported anecdotally - was actually one of the earliest symptoms of COVID-19 infection. A discovery that influenced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to add anosmia to its list of symptoms.[6]

The use of employing the tool of artificial intelligence to help stop the spread of Coronavirus is not to say that humans and their efforts in detection and prevention become obsolete or in any way less valued than they were before - after all, it is we humans who are operating and managing the AI and putting into action the plans from the tools results.

Far past the plague of the 20th century, we now have the advantage of having technologies such as advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning - and the people who can make great use of them. Healthcare systems and professionals around the world have often been overwhelmed at the volume of this pandemic, resulting in struggles to access all peoples who are in need of life saving treatments. Ethical Digital Health Solutions may be one of the best steps forward in helping to save peoples lives.

Nevertheless, it must always be remember that How something is done is just as important as What is done. We must not let crisis allow for cutting corners or for the will for haste to mean a diminishment in ethical protocols, which may come back to haunt us when the crisis is over. With Digital Health and technology, we enter into new possibilities but also new types of risks, which must always be assessed and monitored, so that the technology used, does no harm.

"To save lives it might be tempting to deploy these technologies at speed and scale. Deployment of AI can affect a wide range of fundamental values, however, such as autonomy, privacy, and fairness. AI is much more likely to be beneficial, even in urgent situations, if those commissioning, designing, and deploying it take a systematically ethical approach from the start."[7]

Considering and acting to prevent any potential harms, pre-emptively in the development stages of the technology, does not stop or hinder technological advancement - even when time is of the essence. Building with an ethical framework with necessities such as trust and fair access into the efficiency and effectiveness is what makes for a great use of technology, and just the kind of Digital Health initiative that this world needs at this crucial time.

References

Please see below for sources which have not been highlighted and Linked in the text body of the Blog.

[1] Kobie, N., 2021. Everyone should be worried by big tech's huge NHS data grab. WIRED UK.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-apple-amazon-nhs-health-data

[2] Knowledge@Wharton. 2021. How Artificial Intelligence Can Slow the Spread of COVID-19 - Knowledge@Wharton.
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-artificial-intelligence-can-slow-the-spread-of-covid-19/

[3] Knowledge@Wharton. 2021. How Artificial Intelligence Can Slow the Spread of COVID-19 - Knowledge@Wharton.
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-artificial-intelligence-can-slow-the-spread-of-covid-19/

[4] Cha, A., 2020. Artificial intelligence and covid-19: Can the machines save us?.
The Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-19-artificial-intelligence/2020/10/30/7486db84-1485-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html

[5] Weldon, D., 2021. How AI can be a COVID-19 game-changer | TechBeacon.
TechBeacon.
https://techbeacon.com/enterprise-it/how-ai-can-be-covid-19-game-changer

[6] Cha, A., 2020. Artificial intelligence and covid-19: Can the machines save us?.
The Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-19-artificial-intelligence/2020/10/30/7486db84-1485-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html

[7] Cave, S., Whittlestone, J., Nyrup, R., O hEigeartaigh, S. and Calvo, R., 2021. Using AI ethically to tackle covid-19. BMJ, p.n364.
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n364

COVID-19: AI to the rescue..?

References

Further Reading

Leave a Reply.

Want to Contribute?

Archives