How Technology Helps Protect Global Health and Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kush Parikh ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Antiviral Treatment ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
Global Response ◽  
Patient Diagnosis ◽  
Remote Treatment

Whether it is mindlessly scrolling through social media, or even using voice assistant devices to order products online, there is no doubt that technology has fundamentally changed our lives. As COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths climb, new and innovative digital technologies are being harnessed to support the global response to COVID-19 (Whitelaw, Mamas, and Van Spall, 2020). With no effective antiviral treatment in sight and vaccines only just becoming available, global efforts have been focused on containment and prevention strategies. The countries with the most effective handling of the virus have successfully implemented digital technologies to aid in contact tracing, patient diagnosis through artificial intelligence, and telemedicine for remote treatment options.

scholarly journals Artificial Intelligence-enabled analysis of social media data to understand public perceptions of COVID-19 contact tracing apps (Preprint)

10.2196/26618 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Cresswell ◽  
Ahsen Tahir ◽  
Zakariya Sheikh ◽  
Zain Hussain ◽  
Andrés Domínguez Hernández ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Media Data

Contact Tracing in Healthcare Settings during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanglin Tang ◽  
Kenneth Westover ◽  
Steve Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Low Energy ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Good Contact ◽  
Real Time Location System

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has caused great damages and it will likely linger for long time. Contact tracing in healthcare settings during the COVID-19 pandemic is of special importance because the population there are the most vulnerable to the pandemic. A good contact tracing technology in healthcare settings should be equipped with six features: promptness, simplicity, high precision, integration, minimized privacy concerns, and social fairness. Existing digital technologies can potentially provide elegant solutions for contact tracing in healthcare settings, of which the indoor real-time location system based on Bluetooth Low Energy and artificial intelligence may be a good candidate. OBJECTIVE N/A METHODS N/A RESULTS N/A CONCLUSIONS N/A CLINICALTRIAL N/A

Contact Tracing in Healthcare Settings during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanglin Tang ◽  
Kenneth D Westover ◽  
Steve B Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Low Energy ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Good Contact ◽  
Real Time Location System

UNSTRUCTURED The COVID-19 pandemic has caused great damages and it will likely linger for long time. Contact tracing in healthcare settings during the COVID-19 pandemic is of special importance because the population there are the most vulnerable to the pandemic. A good contact tracing technology in healthcare settings should be equipped with six features: promptness, simplicity, high precision, integration, minimized privacy concerns, and social fairness. Existing digital technologies can potentially provide elegant solutions for contact tracing in healthcare settings, of which the indoor real-time location system based on Bluetooth Low Energy and artificial intelligence may be a good candidate.

A fully automated conversational agent with artificial intelligence capabilities (Youper) for treating depression and anxiety: A nonrandomized feasibility trial (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Hamilton Vargas ◽  
Thiago Antonio Marafon ◽  
Diego Fernando Couto ◽  
Ricardo Giglio ◽  
Marvin Yan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Feasibility Trial ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Symptoms Of Depression ◽  
Viable Solution

BACKGROUND Mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety disorders, are significant global concerns. Many people with these conditions don't get the help they need because of the high costs of medical treatment and the stigma attached to seeking help. Digital technologies represent a viable solution to these challenges. However, these technologies are often characterized by relatively low adherence and their effectiveness largely remains empirical unverified. While digital technologies may represent a viable solution for this persisting problem, they often lack empirical support for their effectiveness and are characterized by relatively low adherence. Conversational agents using artificial intelligence capabilities have the potential to offer a cost-effective, low-stigma and engaging way of getting mental health care. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of Youper, a mobile application that utilizes a conversational interface and artificial intelligence capabilities to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy-based interventions to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in adults. METHODS 1,012 adults with symptoms of depression and anxiety participated in a real-world setting study, entirely remotely, unguided and with no financial incentives, over an 8-week period. Participants completed digital versions of the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) at baseline, 2, 4, and 8 weeks. RESULTS After the eight-week study period, depression (PHQ-9) scores of participants decreased by 48% while anxiety (GAD-7) scores decreased by 43%. The RCI was outside 2 standard deviations for 93.0% of the individuals in the PHQ-9 assessment and 90.7% in the GAD-7 assessment. Participants were on average 24.79 years old (SD 7.61) and 77% female. On average, participants interacted with Youper 0.9 (SD 1.56) times per week. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that Youper is a feasible, acceptable, and effective intervention for adults with depression and anxiety. CLINICALTRIAL Since this study involved a nonclinical population, it wasn't registered in a public trials registry.

scholarly journals Mapping value sensitive design onto AI for social good principles

AI and Ethics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Umbrello ◽  
Ibo van de Poel
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Use Case ◽  
Value Sensitive Design ◽  
Specific Design ◽  
Established Method ◽  
Social Good ◽  
Do No Harm ◽  
Design Requirements ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

AbstractValue sensitive design (VSD) is an established method for integrating values into technical design. It has been applied to different technologies and, more recently, to artificial intelligence (AI). We argue that AI poses a number of challenges specific to VSD that require a somewhat modified VSD approach. Machine learning (ML), in particular, poses two challenges. First, humans may not understand how an AI system learns certain things. This requires paying attention to values such as transparency, explicability, and accountability. Second, ML may lead to AI systems adapting in ways that ‘disembody’ the values embedded in them. To address this, we propose a threefold modified VSD approach: (1) integrating a known set of VSD principles (AI4SG) as design norms from which more specific design requirements can be derived; (2) distinguishing between values that are promoted and respected by the design to ensure outcomes that not only do no harm but also contribute to good, and (3) extending the VSD process to encompass the whole life cycle of an AI technology to monitor unintended value consequences and redesign as needed. We illustrate our VSD for AI approach with an example use case of a SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing app.

Entertainment publics in the Philippines

2021 ◽  
pp. 1329878X2098596
Author(s):  
Anna Cristina Pertierra
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Political Capital ◽  
Martial Law ◽  
Entertainment Media ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
The Media ◽  
Entertainment Television

Since the late 1980s, Filipino entertainment television has assumed and maintained a dominance in national popular culture, which expanded in the digital era. The media landscape into which digital technologies were launched in the Philippines was largely set in the wake of the 1986 popular movement and change of government referred to as the EDSA revolution: television stations that had been sequestered under martial law were turned over to family-dominated commercial enterprises, and entertainment media proliferated. Building upon the long development of entertainment industries in the Philippines, new social media encounters with entertainment content generate expanded and engaged publics whose formation continues to operate upon a foundation of televisual media. This article considers the particular role that entertainment media plays in the formation of publics in which comedic, melodramatic and celebrity-led content generates networks of followers, users and viewers whose loyalty produces various forms of capital, including in notable cases political capital.

scholarly journals Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, and Suicide Prevention: Principle of Beneficence Besides Respect for Autonomy

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 43-45
Author(s):  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Yuming Wang ◽  
Zhenxiang Zhang ◽  
Fangxia Guan ◽  
Hongmei Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Respect For Autonomy

scholarly journals Applications of Robotics, AI, and Digital Technologies During COVID-19: A Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Zhuo Zhao ◽  
Yangmyung Ma ◽  
Adeel Mushtaq ◽  
Abdul M. Azam Rajper ◽  
Mahmoud Shehab ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Technology Adoption ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Rapid Diagnosis ◽  
Quick Response ◽  
Virus Spread ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Public Areas ◽  
Potential Impact

Abstract Many countries have enacted a quick response to the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing existing technologies. For example, robotics, artificial intelligence, and digital technology have been deployed in hospitals and public areas for maintaining social distancing, reducing person-to-person contact, enabling rapid diagnosis, tracking virus spread, and providing sanitation. In this paper, 163 news articles and scientific reports on COVID-19-related technology adoption were screened, shortlisted, categorized by application scenario, and reviewed for functionality. Technologies related to robots, artificial intelligence, and digital technology were selected from the pool of candidates, yielding a total of 50 applications for review. Each case was analyzed for its engineering characteristics and potential impact on the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, challenges and future directions regarding the response to this pandemic and future pandemics were summarized and discussed.

Das Zeitalter der Künstlichen Intelligenz als Herausforderung für die Parlamente

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-181
Author(s):  
Arne Pilniok
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Processes Of Change ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
Government Administration ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
The Government

The digital transformation is permanently changing the government, administration, and society . This process is being intensified by the much-discussed technologies of artificial intelligence, and poses a variety of challenges for parliaments and indirectly for parliamen­tary studies . Their different dimensions have not been discussed comprehensively so far, although the technological developments affect all parliamentary functions and their prem­ises . This article systematizes and structures the various effects of the age of artificial intel­ligence on parliamentary democracy . Namely, the conditions of democratic representation change, the innovation-friendly regulation of digital technologies becomes a parliamentary task, parliamentary control has to be adjusted to the use of algorithms and artificial intelli­gence in government and administration, and possibly, the epistemological and organiza­tional structures of parliamentary work might have to be adapted . This provides starting points for future detailed analyses to adequately capture these processes of change and to accompany them from different disciplinary perspectives .

Data-driven inferences of agency-level risk and response communication on COVID-19 through social media-based interactions

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 59-82
Author(s):  
Md Ashraf Ahmed, PhD Candidate ◽  
Arif Mohaimin Sadri, PhD ◽  
M. Hadi Amini, PhD, DEng
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Topic Model ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Online Social Media

Risk perception and risk averting behaviors of public agencies in the emergence and spread of COVID-19 can be retrieved through online social media (Twitter), and such interactions can be echoed in other information outlets. This study collected time-sensitive online social media data and analyzed patterns of health risk communication of public health and emergency agencies in the emergence and spread of novel coronavirus using data-driven methods. The major focus is toward understanding how policy-making agencies communicate risk and response information through social media during a pandemic and influence community response—ie, timing of lockdown, timing of reopening, etc.—and disease outbreak indicators—ie, number of confirmed cases and number of deaths. Twitter data of six major public organizations (1,000-4,500 tweets per organization) are collected from February 21, 2020 to June 6, 2020. Several machine learning algorithms, including dynamic topic model and sentiment analysis, are applied over time to identify the topic dynamics over the specific timeline of the pandemic. Organizations emphasized on various topics—eg, importance of wearing face mask, home quarantine, understanding the symptoms, social distancing and contact tracing, emerging community transmission, lack of personal protective equipment, COVID-19 testing and medical supplies, effect of tobacco, pandemic stress management, increasing hospitalization rate, upcoming hurricane season, use of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 treatment, maintaining hygiene, and the role of healthcare podcast in different timeline. The findings can benefit emergency management, policymakers, and public health agencies to identify targeted information dissemination policies for public with diverse needs based on how local, federal, and international agencies reacted to COVID-19.

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