Do We Need Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to Study the Spread of Epidemics?

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Artificial Intelligence and Big data are two of the most anticipated technologies around the world. With each passing day, more and more organizations are utilizing it for one purpose or the other. Be it studying the trends of customer behavior or tapping into the potential of their own organizational departments, artificial intelligence and big data innovation for business comes handy. The profitable combination of the two technologies has helped not only the world of business but other sectors too. One such as healthcare to see through the ordinary and know substances that are meaningful.

Healthcare and Big Data

The current state of healthcare scenario around the world is more or less. This is based on the fact that care services are quantified rather than being focused on quality. A lot of medical institutions and hospitals still believe that the success of their organizations lies in the number of patients they’ve addresses or their doctors have seen. It barely matters what level of services were provided to these patients or whether they received anything in the name of care.

But this approach leads to a lot of problems, many of which have already been witnessed by organizations quite profoundly. To begin with, several medical institutions don’t know the whereabouts of their patients after one visit. The patients never come back for re-examinations. Alternatively, there is a shortage of staff and resources in emergency departments because organizations cannot figure out the footfall on any particular day.

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Most of these problems arise on account of operational inefficiencies and can be managed by keeping a close check on them. While a large part of the medical industry is still scared to utilize emerging technologies, those who do have gained many folds from it. Technologies like artificial intelligence and big data not just help the healthcare industry innovate but also solve their existing problems.

Embracing the New Technologies

Healthcare organizations that are embracing new technologies are quickly reviving up their game in the market. They are revamping their strategies to make healthcare more value-based. According to recent research by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, nearly 40 percent of the healthcare organizations had defined a healthcare strategy for themselves in 2015. This number, on the other hand, was seen strikingly rising, with more than 70 percent of the organizations deploying unified analytics by the end of 2018.

The Deloitte team continues to highlight the fact that analytics is a necessary capability. It has the potential to shift the current payment scenario to value-based quality of care while improving the services. But one of the best things comes from the fact that the high quality of care doesn’t have to be highly spent upon. In other words, the right use of big data and artificial intelligence can help in lowering the costs among other factors.

Studying the Epidemics

What can be a better way to describe the situation of the epidemics than the most lethal of virus COVID-19. The Coronavirus is one of the deadliest ever viruses to have affected mankind. Also, it is evolving to the status of a pandemic by now. The fact that even the most developed countries are facing such dire consequences is tiresome. With that, they are not being able to come up with a quick cure.

But there are a few organizations that are actively working towards curbing the viruses by utilizing the best of merging technologies. Take the Canadian artificial intelligence BlueDot as an example. The healthcare organizations were able to successfully warn the authorities about the spread of the Coronavirus. And this was far more ahead than any official statement was released from the World Health Organization.

Bluedot was able to achieve all of this by making predictions and tapping into different kind of statistics, instead of just the official ones. The algorithm brings new stories in multiple languages. It also brings reports from plant and animal disease tracking, traveling information among others. To find underlying statistical patterns, all of this is given to an ML model for processing.

Bluedot algorithm is better than the others because of the way the organization tracks diseases and fetches the data. Bluedot relies on far diverse sources than just public health records. It models how diseases spread among people. It further helps in making it possible to figure where or when will the outbreaks happen along with the quantity.

The traditional systems only focus on the location of the patient by tapping into the GPRS of their mobile phones. While new algorithms are also scanning social media platforms and discussion forums. This is for understanding the patients to be called sick or experiencing any symptoms.

Conclusion

A large number of organizations are realizing the potential of big data solutions and artificial intelligence for their firms, pushing them further to explore the multitude of benefits that both technologies have to provide.

To suppressing the disease is indeed a tough nut to crack. To identify and predicts the possibility of its spread is one of the most useful things. It can help governments make the right decisions and take preventive measures before the pandemic gets any worse.