At a time when the entire globe is fighting hard to tackle the outbreak of the pandemic Covid-19, there are these apps powered by Artificial Intelligence that are helping people screen themselves. This would end up reducing the immense pressure on healthcare institutions, and also warning those that are at the high risk of developing the infection across the world.
Mention may be made of two Indian origin researchers, one based out of Australia, and the other in the US. They have led their teams to develop Covid-19 specific risk checker apps to counter the fear and confusion that surrounds the infection, that was declared a pandemic by the WHO.
Co-founder of Medius Health, Abhi Bhatia, who runs an AI digital health company in Australia, had launched his platform on March 4th, Similarly, SR Srinivasa Rao from Augusta University would be doing so soon. The apps developed by the duo would be used to reach someone quite early on, also educate the public, deliver accurate information, that are relevant to their symptoms, in order to quell the fears of the people.
Across the globe, health tech startups that have medical chatbots are really working hard to update their algorithms, in order to screen people and also advise whether they must be evaluated for the infection. However, apps that enable at-home risk assessments in a fraction of time, are also entering in India.
The process involved people to fill in a detailed questionnaire and then AI uses an algorithm to rapidly assess their information, then send a risk assessment under three categories – no risk, minimal risk, moderate or high risk, and also alert the nearest facility that a health check is needed likely.
However, one of the biggest problems in epidemics, in general, is the massive supply and demand mismatch, as per Bhatia. He says that healthcare institutions are not enough to acater to it. Quro, a risk assessment tool, developed by Quro, has so far infected over 70 people on India.
Till Thursday, there were around 64,843 hits on the risk assessment app. There were around 28,700 hits from India, and the number of risk assessments is growing at 32 percent daily. They also said that this app can help direct those that are deemed at risk to the nearest definitive testing facility.
The app that is soon to be launched would provide local and health officials with real time information on emerging demographies, especially for those that are mostly at risk. Additionally, individuals are being asked through this app to provide details like gender, age, race, and the areas that they have travelled to. Also, the common symptoms of infections and their duration, like that of fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, sputum, headache, diarrhoea, and pneumonia are included.