““We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.”
— Douglas Adams
ATTEMPTING TO COVER HOW technology can help in the fight against coronavirus is something of a fool’s errand, because it’s such a wide and diverse industry that the number of potential applications is almost infinite.
It’s clear that governments are taking technology seriously as a tool that can help them, too. For example, early on in the outbreak, Dominic Cummings, chief advisor to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, summoned representatives from 30 technology companies to a meeting with NHS CEO Simon Stevens at Downing Street. The meeting earned the nickname of “the digital Dunkirk”.
Tech companies of all shapes and sizes have already demonstrated a commitment to tackling the coronavirus problem. For example, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is using one of Microsoft’s chatbots to power a COVID-19 assessment bot. Meanwhile, Amazon AWS has used $20 million to create a diagnostic development unit that aims to develop faster and more affordable testing kits. And IBM is providing the White House with supercomputing resources to help their researchers to map and stop the spread of COVID-19.
NHSX, the digital branch of the British NHS, launched an initiative called Techforce 19, which asked “all innovators” to find ways to help the elderly, the vulnerable and those who were self-isolating. As an incentive, they offered developers, programmers and entrepreneurs up to £25,000 (around $31,000) to help them to test their ideas. They also hosted a hackathon called “Hack from Home”.
This is an approach that’s been echoed by other governmental organizations elsewhere in the world. The French Ministry of Armed Forces spent €10 million ($11 million) calling for COVID-19-related projects, while India launched a startup challenge of its own. Even Poland got into the game, arranging an international hackathon that attracted over 1,500 participants.
One interesting approach comes to us via Lantum, a workforce-management platform that was launched to help the NHS to reduce staffing costs. The platform provides access to over 20,000 medical staff and offers up a national snapshot of what’s going on and where capacity is. During the outbreak, it’s refocused itself to better support teleconferencing and to cater to staff shortages during the coronavirus crisis.
Speaking on behalf of Octopus Ventures, early stage investor Zoe Chambers explained, “If you have tech that can be repurposed quite quickly, then it completely makes sense to put your hand up. Say you have an at-home temperature tracking app, initially designed for fertility. It can easily be repurposed for self-isolating people, because the tech is there.”
3D Printers
3D printing is coming of age in the coronavirus era, with the technology being used to create face masks in a time of unprecedented demand. A number of different 3D printing initiatives have been announced, including one from New York’s Budmen, which is printing 1,000 face shields for medical staff each day.
Writing for WUSF Public Media, Daylina Miller covers another example, explaining, “A week ago, out-of-work Walt Disney World seamstress and Orlando resident Cynthia Kirkland turned her 3D printer toward making face shields out of the plastic sheeting commonly seen in overhead projectors in schools, and 3D-printed face bands – all of which are easily cleaned in a bleach bath. It quickly turned into a state-wide and national effort of more than 150 3D printers taking designs, originally created by makers in Sweden, the Czech Republic and elsewhere, and tweaking them.”
One thing to note is that these shields don’t necessarily replace existing gear, but that they can help to make masks last a lot longer. They’re similar in some ways to a welding visor and it currently costs around $20 to make 60 shields, though each shield takes up to two hours to print.
Meanwhile, Kentucky Rural Development State Director in Rural Technology Hilda Legg highlighted the case of Somerset Community College, which also used 3D printing to aid healthcare efforts. Legg explains, “It only took a few hours to go from printing student projects to printing and assembling the first face shield prototypes, and when there was a requested design change, an updated prototype was ready in less than 20 minutes with finished versions coming out within the hour. Now that they have a finalized design, they’re printing and assembling over 100 face shields per hour. Eric, who’s basically living out of his office to continue the process 24/7 with the help of some rotating staff members, said they’ve also shared the specifications with networked additive manufacturers so they could also begin production.”
App-Based Concierges
In the early days of the outbreak, widespread testing wasn’t necessarily available, and so an app-based concierge care company called Forward stepped up to try to ease some of the pressure on the healthcare system. Waiving its usual membership fee, Forward offered up free video consultations with board-certified US doctors for coronavirus-related symptoms.
Writing for Inside Hook, Nadja Sayej explained, “A concierge doctor is a physician who has a direct relationship with their patient by phone, text and in-person appointments. They know and understand your medical history well. They call this privilege ‘primary care’. The cost? An annual fee, often billed as a membership. Most doctors have a small percentage of clients for this service, while carrying on their regular practice.”
Services like the one that Forward offers were vital at a time when demand for testing far exceeded supply. Adrian Aoun, the CEO and founder of the company, explained, “The care team assesses [patients’] risks based on the results of [an] assessment and can quickly triage those who may have the virus. As a supply of tests is still limited in the US, members whose remote assessment indicates [they’re the] the most in need are then scheduled for testing.”
Dr. Sanford Friedman adds, “The role of the concierge physician is immediacy and the main tool of the pandemic is the phone. I have patients calling me up the wazoo with fever. I’ve discouraged people from coming. The phone becomes the critical instrument for dealing with the virus; understanding a patient’s medical history and advising them.”
Big Tech Gets Involved
Another side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was that major companies all over the world started looking at ways to help out in the fight. General Motors, for example, used its logistics, purchasing and manufacturing expertise to team up with healthtech firm Ventec to make ventilators. Mary Barra, the company’s CEO, explained, “We’re working closely with Ventec to rapidly scale up production of their critically important respiratory products to support our country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll continue to explore ways to help in this time of crisis.”
Meanwhile, Boise State University, though hardly a tech company, got involved by providing temporary housing for healthcare workers who needed to self-isolate to protect their families. Greg Hahn, vice president of communications at the University, explained, “The university has made it a top priority to be as responsive to the community and the state as possible through all this, so we’re exploring all the ideas that come our way. I believe this need is coming from the healthcare systems and their workers, hoping to do all they can to keep providing needed care but without putting their families in danger.”
Boeing got involved too, 3D printing face shields for healthcare workers which included an adjustable headband and a clear plastic face shield. The company promised to deliver thousands of shields per week via several plants throughout the United States. The company also donated thousands of gloves, goggles, face masks and protective body suits to healthcare efforts, as well as offering up some of their planes to transport medical supplies throughout the States.
Want to learn more?
I talk more about new technologies and their impact on the healthcare industry in my book, The Future of Healthcare: Humans and Machines Partnering for Better Outcomes. Click here to buy yourself a copy.