AI and coronavirus: The BlueDot and Nanox cases

We all know that IT and AI continuously evolve and have greater effects on many different industries. Big changes are running along with them. But what does IT and AI are actually doing right now for the world when we face the biggest global-scale crisis since WW2? Are they building something tangible and perdurable for humanity? Can we see their results?

The answer is yes. And the best example is the startup BlueDot, based in Toronto. The company found out about the potential spread of the now much-feared virus, COVID-19, way before the whole world started talking about it. On December 31, BlueDot identified the outbreak in Wuhan; many hours after, even the authorities diagnosed many cases. So, basically, the startup team confirmed the information and informed their clients that very same day, a week before the international health organizations and the Chinese government made official statements.

Because of this, BlueDot got their hands and heads to work before the rest of the world. This shows how vital AI companies are, and could be in understanding the danger potential of viruses and pandemics, and to take preventive measures as quickly as possible.

Machines can be trained to process massive amounts of data just as a medical expert does it, with the little difference that a machine doesn’t need to rest and is faster. That means the process is way more replicable and efficient. Thus, medical experts can focus on interpreting the data and finding solutions and making decisions based on them.

But this startup is just one of the hundreds of companies devoted to the cause.

One of the other top examples is Nanox, a medical technology company based on Israel. The company is developing to main products regarding X-Ray tests to fight coronavirus.

First, they developed an X-Ray mobile digital system that uses software based on an AI cloud to point out cases of infections to help prevent outbreaks. So, basically, to get better diagnoses, Nanox mixed a large amount of photos databases, crossing them with radiologist medical opinions and studies, annotations, diagnostic reviews, and AI systems. The result is a system that gives swifter, more accurate potential results.

To complement this first tool, Nanox is creating an X-ray device, designed to supply tomographic images of lungs. Their goal is to install the machine in public spaces with large concentrations of individuals.

Both systems are mobile imaging devices that are pretty much low-cost. The company is seeing an influx of investment of funds that are aiming at the potential AI tools have of preventing pandemics. AI can detect diseases immediately, meaning they are faster than regular testing. The best strategy against coronavirus has been widespread testing to isolate asymptomatic and mild cases quickly, which are the ones that infect more people. This is the path Germany and South Korea have taken, and they’ve been able to control the number of cases and the mortality rates.

The role that technology is playing to prevent coronavirus is unparalleled. Artificial intelligence can help medical professionals in identifying the spread of the disease and get better diagnoses swiftly.

How have CEOs responded to the coronavirus pandemic?

In the last few weeks, we’ve seen how COVID-19 suddenly forced the entire world to change their daily routine. In most Western countries, businesses and shops all over the place are being forced to shut down, not knowing when they will reopen.

Sure, for some people, it’s perfectly fine. They can work from their homes during the quarantine and have Zoom video calls. But what about the people who only can look ahead? What about the ones who run big businesses with thousands of workers and dependents?

Let’s take a closer look at what the CEOs around the world are doing to smash public fears and keep going.

Are they worried?

Yes, they do worry! They are humans with family and loved ones, too. But they use their worry as a motivation to keep going and finding answers faster.

Todd Herman, a peak-performance coach, studied what CEOs are doing during the coronavirus outbreak. He mentioned that keeping up with the news and the latest advancements is a key factor. And with so many countries suffering, so many labs working on a cure, and so many politicians not knowing what to do, it is incredibly hard.

But high-performance CEOs find a way to do it. They are more likely to know, for example, how South Korea or Taiwan responded to the coronavirus. Taiwan is considered by experts to have had the fastest, smartest, and most measured response in the world. Despite the incredibly close location to China, it has a dramatically low number of cases when compared to other nations.

Another notable attitude is they are working on how to keep selling their products or continue to deliver their services by changing or shifting them. Furthermore, they are working on how to help the authorities and make a positive change for their clients, workers, and societies during the crisis.

Moreover, they are continuously changing their teams and keeping them in constant communication and informed about the present and future perspectives of their companies. Their conversations revolve around “action,” “opportunity,” “merge,” and “buy” because they see the outbreak as an opportunity to start other businesses and hire more talented people. But it’s tough to keep your team motivated during such a situation, so they are working hard on it.

How do they do it? They keep their eyes on the future. The present is tough, but sooner than later it’ll pass. Likewise, it’s going to bring more possibilities for remote work and hiring freelancers and people around the world. They seek to bring calm messages to their crew, with solid communication in terms of growth, sustainability, and opportunities.

So, in conclusion, what are CEOs doing, according to Todd Herman? First, they don’t consume news that fuel fear or negativity on social media. They focus on the news about advancements and companies that are positively dealing with coronavirus. Even as they are aware that the development of their companies is going to decrease, and there might be an economic crisis looming ahead, they talk about opportunity and growth to keep themselves and their teams moving towards sustainability.

 

How have the tech companies helped in fighting the coronavirus pandemic?

As the coronavirus pandemic accelerates in the whole world, it was complete a face-slap to the technological giants that demands an immediate response.

In today’s world, where technology seemed to be everywhere and take us to unthinkable places and push the limits of reality, the coronavirus pandemic reminded us how small and vulnerable we are

As we all know, the virus put us all into isolation and demanded that we avoid human contact. So, companies, public organizations, and hospitals needed new ways to conduct themselves.

So, let’s make a little review of how this virus is transforming the IT sector around the world.

Tracking apps

Certain countries, such as South Korea and Hong Kong, are using tracking apps to collect data of infected patients to track their movements, mark red zones, and avoid spread.

How do they work? Basically, when a case is confirmed, all the places the infected individual went in the last few days are marked as potential danger zones, meaning that people should avoid going there. Such a strategy has worked wonders in some of these countries, which are considered by experts to be the ones that have managed the pandemic in the best way possible.

Big Data

The big data race was unparalleled. Now, its growth and development are indispensable. Sequencing and visualization of the evolution of the spread are of utmost importance for epidemiologists so they can have a better understanding of how the disease spreads and how it behaves in every country. For example, Nextrain, an open-sourced project providing data of the virus, has studied and shared the genetic sequencing of around 700 patients with the virus. This has corroborated that the virus isn’t mutating as it spreads through the spread.

AbCellera, a biotechnology company, is using a machine learning model to find therapies analyzing the antibodies from recovered patients. Likewise, they are studying around five million immune cells while searching for the one that produces antibodies that help infected patients. In this way, 500 antibodies have been found as potential candidates to be used in therapies of the virus. The support of machine learning algorithms speeds up the process of finding possible treatments to be tested.

3D Ventilator Printing

Ventilators are essential to treat the worst cases of COVID-19. In some places where the crisis has been terrible, such as Italy, there’s a significant shortage, meaning doctors choose who they give the ventilator to, and who to, basically, let die without a ventilator.

However, some companies are trying to deal with this shortage through 3D printing through open-source design to manufacturing them. Anyone with a 3D printer can collaborate and take them to healthcare providers. In fact, in Spain, that has been one of the countries where the coronavirus has collapsed the healthcare system, Resistencia Team did so. They build an open-source prototype, which was successfully tested in Asturia, Northern Spain, and is soon to be tested in humans.

How have South Korea and Singapore been successful in fighting coronavirus?

Asian countries, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, were three of the first countries with coronavirus cases due to their proximity to China. However, they have few new cases per day and almost no deaths.

If we look at some countries that were affected later, such as France, Spain, and the US, they all have a significant and continuously growing number of cases that have led their healthcare systems to the brink of collapse

For example, Italy, in around a month from the first diagnosed case, now has about 4000 cases per day.

Likewise, the US, where the coronavirus arrived quite late, is now the country with more cases.

But why this happened? Does the scale of the population determine this? Is the globalization to blame?

Not quite. As Mike Ryan, Head of Emergencies of the World Health Organization, said, these dramatic differences show how governments and societies react to overcome the virus.

For example, if we study how South Korea approached the virus, we can learn a bit about such differences.

They had their first coronavirus case early in January. How did they prepare? First, curiously, they didn’t include lockdowns or movement restrictions among their measures. Instead, they developed a network of private and public laboratories devoted to coronavirus testing. Also, they dedicated an enormous effort to building drive-through centers for people to get checked instead of going to hospitals or clinics and expand the virus. Likewise, even as they didn’t enforce major lockdowns, people only left their homes for their basic needs, and most companies allowed their workers to work from home. They kept the schools closed, and large concentrations were prohibited.

Nonetheless, South Korea already had a previous experience that allowed them to prepare for the coronavirus crisis. The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) shook the country with 36 deaths in 2015. Since then, they established a permanent Center for Disease Control, and a special pandemics department to prepare for worst-case scenarios. Those Centers became incredibly essential to face the coronavirus, and the results are clear.

They also were a step ahead regarding laws about managing and publicly sharing patients’ information. Those measures were criticized as invasive by some, and they are probably right, but their effectiveness cannot be disputed. They have apps that show the places where affected patients may have been days before their diagnosis, meaning they indicate areas people should avoid or get tested on time if they’ve also been on those places.

Another significant experience we can learn from is Singapore.

On early January, the Singapore Health Ministry said the virus had reached the island. Quickly, temperature screening at airports was established. Authorities also advanced on awareness fast. They rapidly isolated potential cases and initiated vigorous contact tracing from detected patients just as South Korea did. They also isolated potential cases at hotels, and universities, and left the worst cases at hospitals to avoid the healthcare system collapse.

In conclusion, the most successful cases of coronavirus fighting haven’t necessarily applied full lockdowns (albeit they have been recommended by the WHO and seem necessary in most countries), but have two characteristics: 1) quick isolation of suspected and confirmed cases and 2) widespread testing. This should be the way ahead for those countries fighting the pandemic.

The defining moment of technology in the 21st Century: The coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has markets, companies, authorities, and the general public around the world in turmoil. The worst part of the crisis is yet to come, an economic recession is looming, and healthcare systems are collapsing.

Technology has improved our lives in the last few years. However, it seems that it has reached its defining moment: will it be able to allow us to overcome the potentially worse global crisis the world has faced in the 21^st Century?

The economy

When the world saw the last significant similar pandemics (SARS and AH1N1), tech tools for teleworking were not as developed as today. When the SARS pandemic in 2003 rose, there was no social media, no apps, no smartphones. That meant no shopping, no online entertainment, and no work from home

The crisis has led many companies to send their employees to work from home. That has somewhat salvaged the impact of the crisis over the economy and allowed authorities to feel less pressured regarding the consequences of ordering temporary lockdowns. In this sense, the effect of technology has been felt and has been beneficial. Likewise, it is likely that after the crisis, more people will continue working from home.

What about the health crisis itself?

The coronavirus pandemic represents the first test of the role technology may have for preventing epidemics. China and other countries are using a wide array of AI-based technology to prevent and treat the disease.

As you may know, coronavirus is profoundly contagious and difficult to contain. That means that human interaction has to be reduced as much as possible. Hence, remote communication is the best way to go in many interactions. In Seattle, robots are being used to carry stethoscopes and helping patients to communicate with doctors, which limits their exposure to the disease. Likewise, Chinese hospitals are using robots to disinfect patient rooms emitting ultraviolet light throughout the room to kill viruses.

Likewise, AI is being deployed to study the spread of the pandemic and searching treatments. Metabiota and BlueDot are tracking the disease and forecasting its spread using machine learning algorithms. Also, many hospitals in China use AI-powered software that scans lungs CT images to look for signs of coronavirus and detect it way quicker than the human eye.

Drug companies are using drug discovery platforms powered by machine learning to find possible treatments. AI is used to find new molecules or mine through databases of already-existing drugs to see if they may work against coronavirus. This doesn’t necessarily mean the AI technology will find a cure itself, but it can speed up and crosscheck potential treatments.

In conclusion

The coronavirus has presented severe challenges for technology. It has been the first major global (in the most literal sense) crisis of the 21^st Century and technology has been up to the task. It has helped many companies to survive during lockdowns thanks to technological tools that allow working from home. Similarly, it has also contributed to reducing human contact, which protects doctors and healthcare providers from infections. Lastly, it has also helped to speed up the process of finding potential treatments and identifying positive cases.

Everything you need to know about social distancing

As the world is experiencing an exponential increase of coronavirus cases, authorities around the globe are promoting social distancing, a series of measures that seek to slow down the spread of the coronavirus and prevent an increase in contagion.

However, there are many questions regarding its effectiveness and how to do it the best way possible. In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.

What’s social distancing?

Social distancing is basically staying away from people in general as much as possible, not just infected individuals. Because of the long incubation period of the virus and the percentage of asymptomatic cases, there are many people unknowingly carrying the virus, the best way to prevent contagion is social distancing.

Why is it important?

Firstly, it doesn’t only prevent more infections. That’s one key point, to be sure. But probably, the most significant reason why social distancing is so important is that it helps to prevent a healthcare system collapse. Even if you’re feeling good, it’s essential to comply. Maybe you will just get mild symptoms, but you become the carrier, meaning that you can transmit the virus to people that belong to risks groups (elders, people with cardiac issues, etc.).

The best example of what happens when social distancing measures are not taken promptly is Italy. The country didn’t take social distancing measures for a while, and as the cases amounted, public spectacles continued, people went to work, and public transport was available for all. Now, the country is reporting more than 500 deaths per day and is set to surpass China as the country with most infected people. This has led to a collapse on the healthcare system as there are not enough beds for patients, not enough testing samples, and not enough doctors.

How to practice social distance?

• Above anything, stay home as much as you can. Limit yourself to just leaving home for crucial errands.
• When you do such errands, such as buying food, avoid crowded places. That includes bars and restaurants, even if the authorities haven’t mandated avoiding them.
• Stay at least three feet away from people. That includes your family.
• Stay outdoors as much as you can, as the transmission risk is way lower.
• Wash your hands often for at least 20 seconds and don’t share items without washing them. Wash everything, especially when you get home from running errands.
• Kids aren’t primarily known for their hygiene, so the best choice with them is keeping them home at all times. Don’t send them to school even if your city hasn’t closed them.
• Only assist your elders if it is entirely essential. They are the largest risk group by far, which means it is wise to avoid contact with them as much as possible.

Is social distance effective?

According to the numbers, social distancing, when applied promptly, has helped to avoid and isolate the spread of the disease, especially to vulnerable groups, which prevents the healthcare system from collapsing. Even as the disease continues spreading, social distancing means that the infected individuals can be put in quarantine way quicker. Thus, it is the best prevention measure you can take.

How to be the leader your organization
expects during the coronavirus crisis

On March 16, President Trump announced guidelines that Americans should follow in the next 15 days (which will possibly be extended). The guidelines recommended all Americans to avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 and asked for working from home when possible. Some states, such as New York, have gone even further and have prohibited essential businesses to open their doors.

All this means the US is on the brink of a total lockdown and companies are in completely unknown territory. This is the moment or strong, calm, and decisive leadership in a moment that many organizations might be a couple of steps from falling down a cliff. This crisis is unparalleled. It cannot be compared to wartimes, financial crises, or even natural disasters. It is a crisis that is affecting everyone everywhere.

Let’s see some ways you can be up to the crisis as an organizational leader:

State clear and attainable expectations

In this situation, you don’t have all of the answers. Many aspects depend on what the authorities say and decide, but your team will expect you to act. You need to align the expectations of your team and state them clearly with patience, confidence, and insight.

Your team is looking up to you, searching for your guidance. You have to be up to the task and transmit confidence to your side during this turbulence.

Stay positive and take a deep breath

Understand that not everything is under your control and that’s perfectly fine. If you show that you’re impatient and negative, your team will notice, and that will hurt your leadership. A good leader transmits trust and hope, especially in tough times. It is vital to show empathy with your team. Show you care and learn to put on their shoes.

That means it is vital to take care of yourself so you can be physically and mentally present for your team. The worst mistake would be not having composure and showing erratic behaviors in an already stressful situation.

See the big picture

As a leader, you must be able to foresee the impact of your actions. Thus, learn to take a step back and see the situation from different perspectives and understand what’s under your control and what’s not. One of the toughest parts of managing a crisis, especially one where there are so many things you can’t solve, is taking a step back to the issues between the ones you can solve and the ones you don’t, the ones that are urgent and the ones that are important, and concentrating on the big picture.

Conclusion

The coronavirus pandemic is an unparalleled crisis. No one expected it, and definitely, no one was prepared for it. What’s worse: it seems that the hardest part hasn’t even passed. Bold leadership isn’t everything to overcome this crisis, but it is the starting point. Showing confidence and transmitting calm to your team is the most effective way to start handling the mess as you continue with the big picture in your sight.

Is remote working good for the business?

The global coronavirus pandemic has affected workflows around the world. Companies are sending their employees home and allowing them to work remotely. Many are concerned that this will bring productivity issues, yet others think it is the perfect opportunity to prove that remote working boosts productivity.

Here, we will discuss if remote working is actually good for the business and its main productivity benefits.

The context

Concerns over coronavirus have authorities and businesses encouraging social distancing to avoid transmission. The first companies to take a step and ask their personnel to work for home, where the tech giants. Google said to all its North American workers to work from home, and in Ireland, both Google and Apple did the same. Universities across America and Europe canceled lectures and moved towards online classes, and smaller companies are encouraging smaller meetings while everyone works from home.

Even as the circumstances are far from ideal, is this temporary experiment a good idea?

The flexibility of remote working

Why have people gathered in one place when most of them will just sit around in a cubicle in a computer, messaging individuals via email that they have 5 meters away when you can send them all to work remotely without any issues? There are plenty of time-tracking, remote desktop, project managing, video chatting apps the team can use. That gives the team flexibility and comfort and reduces costs for the company, as it can have smaller spaces for their offices and the units that truly need to work in-person and for team meetings from time to time.

Live quality improvement

If remote working is taken as a long-term strategy, it will allow people to live in lower-cost cities, as they can work comfortably from there. For example, a tech developer, instead of being forced to leave near the Bay Area, can live miles away or in smaller towns that are more affordable. Other members may have mixed roles with shared remote and on-premise work.

Productivity boost

Not all people are prepared for remote work. Some feel the temptation to procrastinate if they’re home, but others feel way more comfortable. If home procrastination is an issue, then people can work from a coworking space or a café.

A study conducted by Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom proved that the pros of remote working overcome the cons significantly. He used Ctrip, China’s largest travel agency, as the lab rat. James Liang, the CEO, wanted to enable the work-from-home option because the HQ offices in Shanghai were incredibly expensive, and employees weren’t finding affordable housing in the city.

Bloom design a test where 500 employees were divided into two groups: one that continued working at the HQ and one that worked from home. The study lasted almost two years and showed an incredible productivity boost from those who worked from home and employee attrition decreased by half. They took shorter breaks, lesser sick leaves, and time off. The company also saved almost $2,000 per employee as it could reduce the HQ space.

In conclusion

Bloom recommended going for a mixed version of remote working: allowing some days-per-week remote working in front of some mandatory days at the office. Even as the circumstances today force companies to go for full-scale remote work temporarily, it is an excellent choice to evaluate the possibility of applying this model to your business. It may boost productivity, save you some costs in office space, and allow you to offer better wages to your crew.

Worried about Coronavirus?
These are the benefits of telemedicine

The WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic a few days ago, and most of the European countries and the US have canceled all major events. It seems like a matter of time before we see some large cities in the US under quarantine and most companies across the country, sending their employees to work from home.

You may have some health concerns but don’t want to leave your house because of fear of contagion. But there are alternative choices, even if you present some mild symptoms, but don’t want to leave your home to infect others: telemedicine. Here we’ll tell you about the main benefits of telemedicine, especially during these times when prevention must be the top priority.

Pros and cons of telemedicine

More than half of the US hospitals use telemedicine and even small-scale healthcare providers are using some form of telehealth to compete in the market. It has a series of significant benefits:

Accessible patient care

3 out of 4 patients prefer convenient access to healthcare over physical interaction. Clearly, in certain conditions, telehealth is not suitable, but it’s a good way to go if you just need some follow-up from a previous ailment or don’t have an emergency, especially in these days where the healthcare system is incredibly busy with coronavirus.

Cost-effectiveness

Remote analysis and monitoring reduce service costs, which is vital, especially in the US, where healthcare costs are way too high for many people. Telemedicine programs save around 10 % of costs for both patients and providers and boost revenue for providers.

Care quality

As it improves timeliness, patients can address their issues quickly as it allows real-time consulting. This is the case in mental health, as telemedicine patients have lower scores of depression and anxiety.

However, not everything is ideal with telemedicine. It also comes with significant risks and issues. Some cons are:

Complex technical training

Moving to telemedicine comes with high costs for healthcare providers, as they need to restructure the IT crew, purchase new equipment, and train their team to work with it.

Less continuity

Certain telemedicine services are on-demand, which means that clients are connected with randomly-assigned healthcare professionals. The physician may not have access to records of previous consultations or have notes about care routines, which hinders care quality.

Less in-person consultations

Many providers and patients worry about potential technical issues such as poor broadband connection that may lead to mismanagement. Thus, many professionals and patients still enjoy the personal touch of personal consultation. Likewise, many checkups and procedures cannot be performed digitally, which means that telehealth cannot substitute personal healthcare significantly.

In conclusion

Telehealth is an $18 billion industry. It certainly has some limitations, such as the difficulty of offering care continuity, and there are some areas where personal healthcare and in-person consultation are irreplaceable. But the market is growing and services are continually improving.

The coronavirus pandemic may even increase the access and use of telemedicine. People who need simple checkups and consultations may fear going to a hospital to do so, considering the risk of getting infected.

 

Everything you need to know of the tech
tools for remote working

Remote work has become a standard part of many Americans’ work schedule. A Gallup poll indicated that almost 4 out of 10 employees in the country log some out-of-office work time, and 3 out of 10 of that group spend as much as four or five days per week out of their offices.

Why has this happened? First of all, almost half of the millennials are freelancers. Second, we are in the middle of a global pandemic, which means that remote working is starting to become a good idea for many individuals and companies. However, this unexpected situation may have caught you off guard, whether you are an employer or an employee.

But rest easy. Here we bring you all the technological tools you need to become a productive remote worker.

Remote desktop

If the pandemic caught you off guard during a trip and you can’t return to your home or if you have all of your files and assets in an office computer, don’t worry. All you need is a proper desktop app. TeamViewer is the free favorite. It allows file and clipboard transfer, wake-on-LAN, and offers a pretty simple setup. That’s the best choice for basic desktop access. Splashtop has a personal free version that supports screen share and pretty much everything TeamViewer offers; however, it has a small charge for iOS.

Real-Time Communication

Slack is great for real-time team chatting. It avoids bothersome email inboxes and allows you to create team chats on departments, projects, and whatever you can think about. You can send messages to the team chats or via DM to smaller groups or individual members. Mattermost is another fantastic option, as it’s an open-source, private cloud app.

For video chat, the best option is Zoom, especially for big team meetings. The pro version costs $15 but will allow you to have meetings with as much as 500 participants and the free version caps your sessions at 40 minutes. An alternative free choice is Google Hangouts, although it has a 25-people cap.

Project management

Basecamp is a stalwart in the project management field. It’s a web-based platform that includes task management, messaging and collaboration, task scheduling, reporting, and file sharing in a simple and straightforward interface. It costs $99 per year, allowing unlimited users. Asana is an excellent alternative as it has an amazing workflow and task management and has a timeline feature. It also gives managers plenty of flexibility to use it as a project map, a task assignment tool, or a workflow management tool.

Time management

If you’re a freelancer, Upwork has its own time-tracking tool that sends screen captures to your client and allows you to update what you’re working on. It helps you to know the time you’re dedicating to the project and charge accordingly, and it also lets your client see you’re not wasting his time. Timely is another time-tracking app that’s worth the check as it allows you to schedule tasks and track the time individually in real-time and immediately tracks earnings if you’re an hourly employee. Toggl is the best free choice if you want to measure your work productivity.