Data, artificial intelligence, digital health systems and connectivity have been aiding the fight against COVID-19 in multiple ways, uncovering new possibilities and showing a clear road map of how AI can be integrated into the health care ecosystem to enhance safety, efficiency and effectiveness, and ultimately improve quality of patient care.
“This pandemic has put health care under stress but has also facilitated the analysis of where we are and what we are doing. It has been a powerful and beautiful wake-up call to see that the management not just of the disease, but of the patient, can be improved,” Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth, MD, PhD, professor and chair of the department of ophthalmology at University Eye Hospital, Vienna, said.
Digital methods enable new ways for patients to receive care and will retain their validity beyond the COVID-19 emergency.
“Significant efforts in the AI and big data space are already underway, and the pandemic has made us aware that a rapid acceleration in the pace of adoption of AI is mandatory,” she said.
“The immediate use and successful application of AI to tackle a major, global public health challenge in 2020 will likely increase the public and governmental acceptance of such technologies for other areas of health care, including chronic disease, in the future,” Daniel Shu Wei Ting, MD, PhD.