Coronavirus Rant: How AI Can Help Our Elderly And Much More
Hello valued readers, please follow the most scientific and evidence-based suggestions that our government recommends (gov.uk/coronavirus), where appropriate, I urge you to follow lockdown and maintain social distancing for the good of yourself and families. One instance of contact is all that is necessary for you to contribute to the spread of this virus, even to those whom you love, to those who have worked day and night to become clinical staff, it would be nothing but a great shame to endanger far more lives for your own mistakes - it’s difficult but we will all get through it as a united globe. Stay safe, and best wishes from myself and all at AIDaily.
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With global cases of coronavirus still increasing to date, it is difficult to quantify the effects of some factors in determining the mildness of a case that a patient experiences - however, comorditbities such as diabetes certainly play a role in more severe outcomes, and these are far more prevalent in senior cohorts. The aging sector is often ignored or ‘set aside’ - for many reasons, such as the government priotising the current and future generation of workers who will play paramount roles in powering economies at a local, national and global level. However, with medical improvements - even to this day - outcomes for the elderly have steadily risen, with life expectancies shooting up significantly globally in the last century. Dr S. Vincent Grasso rightly claims that the unprecedent volume of age-related disease (with the proliferation of a senior population) will result in far more complex care plans, that will stretch carehomes even farther to accomodate for the specialist management of various age-related diseases - such as arthritis, dementia, cancer, Parkinson’s disease and so on. All these will stretch carehomes facilties even closer to their breaking point, as they becoming more common in lieu of a point of care.
There is a clear positive correlation with life expectancy increasing with time between both male and female groups. As seniors accumulate, it is paramount we ensure we have the measures in place to help them in the future. Credit: Gov.uk
There is a fundamental lesson we have learnt from the current pandemic - with the deaths that have been recorded, the burden faced by healthcare workers and the general tension between people and their government have told us that humanity is not good enough. Sounds odd right? But we are not good enough at all, a non-living virus that has no cognition or ‘strategy’ has brought humanity to its knees. In fact, until we are in crisis, we forget how little humans know. How little we are prepared - as the world pursues economic growth and dwells in the false pretense of security. If you watch Bill Gates’ talk on humanity’s risks in facing a new outbreak, release years ago, it is painfully obvious that the world was never prepared for a new pandemic and we all ignored the message. The talk can be accessed HERE for those who are curious. On a similar note, ’The Eyes of Darkness’ by Dean Koontz literally predicted that a severe pneumonia-like illness would spread - and even called it Wuhan-400. This is clearly a coincidence, but there is no doubt that a world crushing pandemic was never thought about. This is not myself suggesting that we have all failed another - it is simply my acknowledgement that we need help. Humans alone will never be enough - we need a new format of thinking, something that goes beyond the ‘trial-and-error’ methodology that the mind often resorts to. Artificial Intelligence.
Bill Gates talking about a potentially ‘highly infectious virus’ in the horizon. Credit: Mic / TED Talks.
Artificial intelligence has manifested itself in the healthcare industry via an assitive role, we have seen this well documented throughout the sector - even in all my previous articles to date, where algorithms have been designed to help wiith roles such as interpreting scans to assigning priorities for patients. Now, we believe it could hold the key to assisting with research, helping to interpret the data that is brought forward, to isolate and interpret trends that will free up far more time for researchers to explore their methods more creatively. Furthermore, AI could be the central component of day to day life - particularly for the elderly, where conversational AI could give elderly patients the human contact they require and the undivided attention of a purpose-built system. It could also help to identify risk factors and inform patients - or even power campaigns that trigger awareness, such as informing government authorities of those in breach of lockdown procedures by using geographical data. I love AI - because it is new, innovative and brings out the child in me, I can do whatever I want with it. However, only time will tell what works - especially in light of this pandemic.
Thank you to all the wonderful researchers around the world who contribute to the fight against COVID-19, to Dr S. Vincent Grasso, and all the healthcare workers who work day and night for the benefit of others, and even endure the risks of coronavirus for the mistakes of others. Our best wishes to you all.
Thank you all for your time in reading, stay safe, and I hope you all stay happy and occupied in self-isolation!
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