Enterprising industry players join the AI-aided fight against COVID-19

Numerous healthcare technology companies are jostling to get products leveraging AI in front of healthcare providers on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19.

Here are five industry announcements that caught the eye of AIin.Healthcare over the past several days.

  • Ohio software and hardware supplier GeneratorWorks is partnering with California telemed provider SmartDocMD to bring to market digital coronavirus screening software. The companies say their new tool, which they’re calling SecurePass, is powered by clinical algorithms combining CDC risk-assessment guidelines, patient symptoms and medical comorbidities to identify and help segregate higher-risk patients.
  • Atlanta-based Jvion has launched COVID Community Vulnerability Map, which lets healthcare providers identify social determinants of health that put communities at risk of coronavirus exposure at the population level. The AI-based mapping system “can quickly help local health departments prioritize their limited resources for response planning and adapt their tactics to the needs of neighborhoods and communities,” according to a news release.
  • Healthcare AI startup Qure.ai says it has added coronavirus-specific detection capabilities to its existing chest X-ray automation and interpretation software. The company, which is headquartered in Mumbai and may be best known for its work fighting TB, also says it has developed an app to monitor and manage COVID-19 patients while mapping coronavirus hotspots for local health officials.
  • Researchers have validated the usefulness of AI software that identifies COVID-19 in CT scans of the chest. The software was developed by RadLogics of Boston and Tel Aviv and put through its paces at universities in Israel, China and the U.S. In announcing the research, RadLogics says it modified its existing AI models specifically for COVID-19 detection and quantification. The company adds that the software has already been deployed in China, Russia and Italy.
  • From London comes word that behold.ai’s AI-based “Red Dot” algorithm can flag abnormalities on chest X-rays nearly instantly. “This ‘instant triage’ could potentially speed up diagnosis of COVID-19 individuals and ensure resources are allocated properly,” the company suggests in announcing the development.

Qure.ai co-founder and CEO Prashant Warier may unintentionally speak for all healthcare vendors ramping up to meet providers’ COVID-19 needs when he says: “We are here to help the brave and selfless healthcare workers at the frontline who are working round the clock to end this pandemic.”

Dave Pearson

Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.

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