Detecting Health Disasters with Artificial Intelligence

Detecting Health Disasters with Artificial Intelligence

2020 has been a year full of surprises! Aside the numerous issues we deal with in our personal lives, we can all agree that the Coronavirus Pandemic has affected us in one way or the other. Countries and international organisations are grappling with the situation, looking for ways to put an end to the pandemic, or at least provide a cure.

As the disease rages on from one country to the other more people are getting infected by the day. As at the writing of this piece, more than three million people have been infected by the virus and about two hundred and twenty-eight thousand people have died. No one could have imagined or even predicted a situation like this, where economies and industries could be crippled by an enemy that cannot be seen. But that’s why we were caught by surprise, because we did not predict!

COVID-19 will of course, teach us some salient lessons, but also lead us to asking some very important questions, one of which is how do we predict future health disasters ahead of time?

Fortunately, the world of tech has a variety of tools that can provide us with probable answers, but I want to draw attention to artificial intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence? How does it Work?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence that is artificial that is, not biological or natural. It simulates human intelligence in the sense that it tries to think and mimic our actions. Such a skill or tool is applicable to different facets of life with a focus on learning, problem solving, identification of actions and most importantly prediction. There are two categories of artificial intelligence, weak artificial intelligence (examples are video games and personal assistants like Siri, Cortana, Alexa, etc) and Strong Artificial Intelligence (which are more complex and complicated systems created to solve bugging problems and perform actions, for example, self-driving cars).

When thinking of AI, think data! It combines large amounts of data with repeated processing and algorithms. The algorithms in this case guide the AI’s computational processes by giving a set of rules. As the result of the processes conform or contradict the set rules, the device/ computer/ mechanism performs specified functions.

AI is applied to healthcare, astronomy, gaming, finance, data security and other fields.

How can Artificial Intelligence Help Us Predict the Next Global Health Disaster/ Global Pandemic?

AI can help us spot or identify a potential pandemic from the other side of the world either at its early stages and/ or even ahead of time. In doing so Data, Patterns and Set rules (algorithms) are important.

The Data and patterns of previous pandemics are factored into the computational processes which are guided with algorithms. The second part of this is monitoring news outlets, agencies and social media for reports or posts on recurring cases of a particular illness(es). Such action is possible with the use of Natural Language Processing algorithms.

Of course, predicting the numbers of potential infections or cases may not be totally accurate, so we will need to present the system a with margin of error (How many points with which the calculated result will differ from the real outcome). Regardless, the system will be accurate in predicting potential pandemics. Already, companies like BlueDot and Metabiota are actively monitoring global health disasters. In fact, BlueDot saw the COVID-19 before it became a full-blown pandemic.

Nigerian Tech Firms can Jump on This

Thankfully, Nigeria’s tech space encourages the development of all kinds of firms. Such firms are focused on e-commerce, fintech, IT support and so on. Up until now, there has been no firm or organisation that actively or passively monitors and predicts global pandemics in Nigeria.

But we as a country cannot depend on things that concern us from external or outside sources! We also have data analytics companies in Nigeria that can include pandemic monitoring through artificial intelligence within their scope. With such an opportunity to get first hand information on future pandemics.

Can Government Help?

Nigeria’s government can be of immense benefit in this regard. Only a few individuals within our society can actually fund start-ups that monitor and predict future pandemics. As such, government can support such initiatives with funds. Also, creating such firms can serve as a foundation for more innovations in the world of tech