Huawei is already involved in the fight against coronavirus. Unlike some other technology companies, however, they did not go through the purchase of medical devices or equipment. Instead, it tries to directly improve the system of disease detection.
The first hospitals, namely the Philippines and one in Ecuador, have already been equipped with the system. Huawei claims that dozens of countries from around the world have shown interest in its technology.
Huawei is taking a slightly different approach for the diagnosis than sampling and subsequent analysis. Coronavirus attacks the lungs, as seen in CT (computed tomography) images. These images are then transferred to Huawei Cloud servers, where they are analyzed by artificial intelligence based on data in a growing database, which so far is said to be mainly data from China.
Huawei helps fight coronavirus: diagnostics within 2 minutes with 98% success rate
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The result is analyzed and provided to doctors within two minutes, with a success rate of 98%. The test is not yet being used as conclusive and is subject to verification. However, it is a great alternative to traditional tests. This latter can take up to several days and its implementation is demanding on human resources. The method of CT scan analysis will allow to quickly “process” a large number of patients with minimal use of personnel and to take appropriate measures until verified by a classical laboratory test.
Artificial intelligence should also be able to distinguish the stages and severity of the infection. Medical teams can use the technology after the initial diagnosis, for example, to monitor the effectiveness of treatment.
It is worth mentioning that the coronavirus, which originated in China in late December, has since spread to 197 countries, infecting over 416,000 and killing about 18,500 globally. Some recent reports claim that the US government is in talks with Facebook, Google and other technology companies about the possibility of using smartphone location data to combat the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.