How COVID is Driving Healthcare Towards Artificial Intelligence

The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic has put the healthcare industry to the test and its limits. We have seen news reports of how overwhelmed the hospitals were in most countries due to the outbreak, especially in 2020. But, fast-forward to 2022, people have learned to cope, and the Information Technology sector has developed new gadgets and machines to help the health sector combat the lingering virus.

Dealing with the Covid-19 virus remains an ongoing challenge, prompting the health department and engineers to work on artificial intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning to find alternative solutions and push through with online consultations, virtual laboratories, and robot-assisted medical operations.

Here are some of the technological advancements in Healthcare App Development that have been helping us during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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1. Telehealth Consultations

Due to tight restrictions and crowd control in hospitals, patients with mild to moderate symptoms resort to video calling their family doctors for an online consultation. The family doctor then recommends a specialist if the illness requires further check-ups. 

The advent of Zoom virtual consultation, and healthcare mobile app consultation has been emerging these days in response to the overwhelmed hospitals and lingering threat of Covid-19. In addition, digital payments through bank fund transfer and other forms of e-money have been acceptable norms to reduce face-to-face interactions.

Some hospitals can develop their mobile applications, so their patients can avail of virtual consultation and pay digitally. In addition, some private doctors are also investing in software solutions to continue serving their patients.

Developing technology is emerging for A.I.-powered stethoscopes and electrocardiograms, which can analyze heartbeat and lung sounds while the patient is online.

2. At-home Laboratory Tests

There are now self-administered Covid-19 test kits, where you can perform the test by yourself. The test kits include instructions, so you can safely and quickly extract the specimen on your own at the convenience of your home, car, or private space. 

For a urinalysis examination, a technology scans the urine and gives an analysis right away. As a result, this helps doctors detect warning signs and administer treatment accordingly. In addition, patients can send an image scan of their urine and submit it online for colorimetric analysis. This at-home test can help detect urinary tract infections. 

We anticipate more capabilities that A.I. and machine learning can do for the at-home laboratory tests.

3. Smart X-ray

Patients with symptoms of pneumonia are being directed to an A.I. - assisted digital tomography scan. It acts as a radiologic scanner, which uses artificial intelligence to detect pneumonia resulting from Covid-19 infection. This smart tomography scanner helps reduce the face-to-face interaction between medical staff and the patient who has cough or symptoms of pneumonia. 

More studies and developments are ongoing to upgrade magnetic reasoning imaging (MRI) with more A.I. capabilities.

4. Computer Vision

A.I.-powered computer vision can analyze body movements and send real-time analysis for posture. Computer vision helps virtually observe a patient's current activity and provides immediate feedback. This device is helpful among post-stroke patients who undergo continuous physical therapy and want to keep up on their routine exercises. 

5. Smartwatches 

With its sensor technology, a new wave of smartwatches can now monitor breathing and sleep.  This new smartwatch can detect your respiration and sleep statistics even without wearing the device all day. Thanks to the sensor, this allows passive monitoring. 

We are looking forward to integrating more vital statistics and health monitoring in smartwatches. 

These are the artificial intelligence-powered technologies that have come out in response to the lingering threat of Covid-19. These devices empower virtual consultations to reduce face-to-face interactions among medical staff and patients. These software and hardware medical devices will undergo further development to boost A.I. and machine learning abilities and successfully administer virtual laboratories and testing. 

In the next few years, we can anticipate the robust capabilities of machine learning-empowered medical devices and equipment with robot integration into specific laboratory equipment functionalities. 

As powered by machine learning, robotics can perform more complex tasks and provide more accurate data. Robots assisting human medical staff and laboratory tests are the following sightings to anticipate as the months unfold for the year 2022.

In sanitation in hospitals, robots have also helped a lot, especially in cleaning and sanitizing Covid-19 testing areas, holding areas for patients with symptoms of Covid-19, and cleaning the rooms of Covid-19 positive patients. In addition, these robots have helped reduce the further spread of infection in hospitals by minimizing face-to-face interaction.

Admit it or not, you would want to have a safer consultation with a doctor when you feel unwell. Almost everyone is participating in online video calls, and the activity of having virtual medical consultation is up and likely.

If you are a private medical practitioner or a hospital owner, you may want to upgrade your hospital facilities, equipment, and devices into smart ones, integrating artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics technology to make customized health care treatments for your patients. 

You can start with a mobile healthcare application that detects vital body statistics such as heart rate, blood pressure, steps counter, exercise, movement tracker, etc. You can also opt to integrate health and wellness into your healthcare app, such as calorie counter, jump counter, next check-up scheduler, fitness goal planner, diet and work-out planner, etc. 

You can incorporate essential features in your clinic into your healthcare app so you can create a customized and personalized experience for your patients.

If you are looking for a healthcare mobile app developer, you can contact Digital Authority Partners to help you start one. A dedicated team of software developers will help you design functionality into the app and deliver accurate data, so you and your patients can track health status faster.