Scientists around the world are doing incredible work to increase our understanding of COVID-19. Thanks to their findings, existing medications have been discovered to increase the likelihood of surviving the virus.

Unfortunately, there are still fatalities. People with weakened immune systems or underlying conditions are most at risk, but it’s a dangerous myth that the young and otherwise healthy can’t die from this virus.

According to a paper published in science journal Nature, around 6.5 percent of COVID-19 cases have a “worrying trend of sudden progression to critical illness”. Of those cases, there’s a mortality rate of 49 percent.

In the aforementioned paper, the researchers wrote: “Since early intervention is associated with improved prognosis, the ability to identify patients that are most at risk of developing severe disease upon admission will ensure that these patients receive appropriate care as soon as possible.”

While most countries appear to be reaching the end of the first wave of COVID-19, the possibility of a second threatens. Many experts forecast another wave will hit during the winter months; when hospitals already struggle from seasonal viruses.

One of the biggest challenges with COVID-19 is triaging patients to decide who are most at risk and require more resources allocated to their care. During the peak of the outbreak in Italy, doctors reported reaching a point of having to make heartbreaking decisions over whether it was a waste of limited resources even trying to save someone.

A team led by China’s senior medical advisor on COVID-19, Zhong Nanshan, was established in February. The team consisted of researchers from Tencent AI Lab in addition to Chinese public health scientists.

Nanshan’s team set out to build a deep learning-based system which can predict whether a patient is likely to become a critical case. Such information would be invaluable to ensuring the patient gets early intervention to improve their chances of surviving the virus in addition to supporting medical staff with their triaging decisions.

The deep learning model was trained on data from 1590 patients from 575 medical centers across China, with further validation from 1393 patients.

Tencent has made the COVID-19 tool for predicting critical COVID-19 cases available online here (Please note the small print which currently says “this tool is for research purpose and not approved for clinical use.”)

(Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash)

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Dr Ling Ge, Chief European Representative at Tencent, said:

“The UK is a global leader in AI and is increasingly becoming a focus for companies looking to invest in the sector. PROWLER.io’s data-efficient approach and focus on human-machine teaming really set it apart.

We are looking forward to PROWLER.io applying its AI decision platform to a broadening range of customers, potentially including some of Tencent’s affiliate companies.”  

Prowler was founded in 2016 by engineers and mathematicians from Cambridge University. The startup aims to be an ‘AI platform for decision-making in a complex, dynamic, and uncertain world.’

Vishal Chatrath, CEO of Prowler.io, commented:

“Having initially focused on developing our AI platform, we are excited to be expanding our product offering into new verticals, underscoring the flexibility and innovative nature of our core technology.

We’re excited to be supporting global corporate and financial leaders like Mandatum Life, Pearson, RB Capital and Tencent with AI tools that enable people to make better decisions.”

Prowler.io launched its AI platform focusing on things such as managing supply chains and making decisions about financial portfolios. The company is now hoping to expand into new areas.

Lauri Vaittinen, SVP at Mandatum Life, a Prowler.io investor, added:

“Prowler.io is on its way to becoming a true enterprise AI platform — successfully expanding from its initial focus on financial services and logistics to apply its core AI technology to multiple adjacent market segments.

We are confident that the strategic partners, alongside the existing funding support, will help the company accelerate practical implementations – including hiring more engineering talent, operational managers, and reinforce the product development expertise.”

Founded in 2016, Prowler.io currently has 110 employees from 29 countries.

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Earlier diagnosis of any medical problem is always good. Often it increases the chance of successful treatment, minimises suffering, and can increase life expectancy in terminal cases.

Parkinson’s is a degenerative affliction without any known cure. Caught early, however, and measures can be taken which helps to slow its progression.

Speaking to Forbes, Medopad CEO Dan Vahdat said:

“Our partnership with Tencent comes from a shared vision to change the future of healthcare as we know it.

In combining Medopad’s medical expertise and Tencent’s technical capabilities, we hope to provide the technology needed to support clinicians to predict preventable complications for people with Parkinson’s disease.”

The disease affects the central nervous system, predominately the motor system. As such, the most obvious symptoms early on are shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement, and difficulty walking.

Tencent and Medopad use AI trained on existing video footage of patients to spot for concerning symptoms. The video analysis was conducted in collaboration with Kings College Hospital in London.

Both companies hope their system will reduce how long it takes for a motor function assessment to be performed from over 30 minutes to less than three. Speeding up diagnosis helps more people to begin treatment faster.

Medopad is known for using wearables for its healthcare solutions, but the AI system will not require any physical sensors or devices to be worn. Reducing the amount of hardware required helps to reduce cost and complexity so more healthcare providers can get started.

The firms are not the only companies looking to use AI to improve healthcare (in fact, we’ve got a whole category dedicated to it – if you’re so inclined.)

Most AI healthcare developments we’ve covered focus on the scourge of cancer, which now affects one in two people. Almost everyone has either had it or knows someone close to them.

Back in August, we covered how AI is reducing how long it takes to produce cancer treatment plans from days to potentially minutes. For those undergoing treatment, AI is even stepping in to help make treatment more bearable.

Tencent and Medopad are delivering another example of how AI can have a huge impact on healthcare, and not just for cancer.

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