Authored By: Subramanian Gopalaratnam, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Resulticks
Covid-19 has presented unprecedented challenges and opportunities to the entire world. A new normal has emerged with the prolonged suspension of everyday activities in all walks of life that is reshaping everything. This pandemic is a wakeup call on how fast a contagion can spread in a globalised world and the damage it could do to a civilization. Organizations are finding their regular approaches suddenly inadequate and they are scrambling to undergo wide-scale changes to stay relevant and viable in this time of crisis.
It has also become imperative for organizations to learn and adapt in an accelerated manner to implement necessary digital transformations that allow them to remain in operation. Instead of making an existing model digital, it calls for integration of digital technology into all aspects of business fundamentally changing how businesses operate and how they deliver value to consumers. And it is precisely this gradual, customer-centric initiative that Covid-19 has accelerated for countless organizations.
How can technology be best used to tackle this outbreak?
The diagnosis of patients is a science of observation that has existed and evolved across eons. Today, health professionals are able to gather a growing array of diagnostic data through electronic means (e.g., wearable input, medical IoT devices) and innovations in areas such as collaborative medical imaging—all leading to much more efficient diagnoses.
The application of AI and machine learning modelling techniques has enhanced health professionals’ ability to, for example, deliver more accurate diagnosis and predict an illness’s probability of occurrence to provide treatment before onset. We have already seen the usage of AI and machine learning to predict, and thus prevent, the onset of cancer, eyesight issues, bone diseases, and more.
The global exchange of anonymized patient data across hospitals and countries collectively has resulted in a large pool of information that could be harnessed by AI and machine learning algorithms. The late 90s and early 2000s saw the beginning of movements such as the Human Genome Project, which became benchmarks for the success of such secure data collaborations beyond borders. Such endeavours have benefited from big data as well as the growth of the computing storage powers available—and quantum computing will only take them to a whole new level.
We at Resulticks believe that valuable data—transformed into a secure, anonymised, and sharable form—will be the key to allowing the fertile minds of AI practitioners, data scientists, and healthcare innovators to harness and act on insights that can alleviate and prevent potential crises. Data democratisation and collaboration are critical to the future applications of AI for the collective good.
