IT COVID-19 News
Google's HeAR: New AI Tool for Health Monitoring Through Sound Analysis
2024 05 Apr
A team of Google scientists has unveiled a groundbreaking machine-learning tool named Health Acoustic Representations (HeAR) designed to detect and monitor various health conditions by analysing sounds like coughing and breathing. This innovative artificial intelligence (AI) system, trained on an extensive dataset comprising millions of human audio... Read more
Survey Reveals Organisations Embrace Emerging Technologies for Competitive Advantage
2023 29 Nov
Based on the data presented in the ‘Digital Transformation and Emerging Technologies in the Healthcare Industry’ report, nearly 71% of healthcare professionals confirmed that the COVID-19 pandemic had the greatest impact on accelerating digital transformation in the healthcare sector. To stay competitive, numerous organisations are actively embracing... Read more
New Study Shows Telemedicine Has Clear Benefits for Patients
2022 18 Nov
Telemedicine was the most cost-effective and safest solution to offering accessible and high-quality care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authors working on a new study by WHO/Europe and the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, provided a general review of the status of telemedicine in Europe and Central Asia. They... Read more
AI-based Voice Screening App Delivers Fast and Accurate Results for Parkinson’s and Severe COVID
2022 20 Oct
A research team of engineers and neurologists from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) developed a voice screening app that could support the early detection of Parkinson’s disease and severe COVID-19. Although common symptoms of Parkinson’s include slow movement, tremors, rigidity and imbalance, diagnosing Parkinson’s... Read more
Consumer and Professional Ratings Differ for Mental Health Apps
2022 04 Oct
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of mental health apps has vastly increased. Recent efforts have been focused on collecting the views of clinicians and academics to learn what is needed from them to improve the apps. However, understanding the views of those with mental health issues is equally important and required to ensure high quality... Read more
Telehealth Follow-up Compares Well to In-Person Care For Chronic Conditions
2022 10 May
A Johns Hopkins University study compared in-person and telehealth ambulatory encounter outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic’s first year. They found that telehealth follow-ups compared equally well to in-person visits outcomes for chronic conditions. Telehealth services in the U.S. have expanded since the beginning of the pandemic to provide... Read more
Survey Shows U.S. Telehealth Use Will Outlast COVID-19
2022 30 Mar
Pharmacy benefit manager and healthcare provider, Optum (Eden Prairie, MN, USA), recently released a report on U.S. healthcare providers’ telehealth use and experience. The research was conducted on behalf of Optum by survey company, Qualtrics (Seattle, WA, USA) and included insights gathered by 240 providers. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,... Read more
Whose COVID-19 Tweets Carry More Impact: Celebrities, Politicians, or Health Authorities?
2022 24 Feb
Poznań University researchers (Poznań, Poland) recently examined the influence that COVID-19 tweets from scientific institutions, governmental authorities, and celebrities gained. This is also the first study that compares the reaction to tweets from a different group of opinion leaders. Twitter is a leading microblog platform with 275 million users... Read more
The Benefits of Virtual Waiting Rooms
2021 06 Dec
COVID-19 sped digital healthcare development in 2020, as care providers implemented digital methods to keep patients and staff safe during the pandemic. Dr Vishal Desai in a prerecorded session for RSNA 2021, described how Thomas Jefferson University’s radiology service managed their transformation from a traditional health care appointment process... Read more
HIMSS21 Middle East: How Can We Better Prepare for the Next Pandemic?
2021 22 Nov
Leading digital health experts at HIMSS21 Middle East have been sharing practical insights into the best way to leverage technology to manage fresh outbreaks of contagious disease. Having successfully deployed digital solutions to help combat COVID-19, healthcare leaders are now looking to the future. They believe it is only a matter of time... Read more
TeleHealth Use After Leaving Hospitals Expands While Outpatient Visits Remain Unchanged
2021 15 Nov
University of Pennsylvania researchers saw telehealth use after hospital discharges increases while outpatient visit frequency remained unchanged. The research team examined FAIR Health claims data from January 2019 to December 2020. Of 70 million commercially insured and Medicare Advantage enrollees, they identified 1.6 million hospital discharges... Read more
Dealing with Data: How to Build a Statistical Surveillance Dashboard for COVID-19
2021 20 Jul
When a major national or global health crisis or pandemic such as the current COVID-19 breaks out, it is important that there is an effective monitoring system in place. The proposed statistical surveillance dashboard can provide authorities and other decision makers with insights and in-depth data analysis to help them make critical decisions.... Read more
Novel 3D 'Lung-On-A-Chip' Model to Test New COVID-19 Therapies
2021 07 May
COVID-19 is the most recent, but certainly not the only condition to affect and cause serious damage to the lung. Asthma, COPD, influenza and pneumonia, among other respiratory diseases often lead to lung failure — one of the leading causes of death globally. Researchers are in a continuous struggle to understand the mechanisms related to these severe... Read more
Will Your Mobile Phone Soon Be Able to Detect COVID-19?
2021 03 May
The NIH recently approved a 24-month grant for researchers to develop sensors that can be embedded into mobile devices which could potentially detect COVID-19 particles on their surfaces. The General Electric Research team is set to begin developing miniature sensors that can be embedded into mobile devices in order to detect COVID-19 on... Read more
Short-Term Planning for COVID-19 Made Easy
2021 16 Apr
Based on the transmission rate data, a group of researchers have developed an easy-to-use, reliable model and dashboard to predict the number of daily COVID-19 cases. You might also like: The WHO has developed a number of surge planning tools, which help to visualise care capacity needs, identify the timing and severity of the peak... Read more
COVID-19 Remote Monitoring: How Safe Is It?
2021 03 Apr
A new study from the University of Toronto presents the results of implementing a multidisciplinary, family medicine-led remote monitoring programme for outpatients with COVID-19. You might also like: A new report shows the growing adoption levels for certain categories of digital health tools and populations, and looks into the matters... Read more
COVID-19 and Telehealth
2021 27 Mar
A massive cohort study of over 36 million U.S. patients looks into how ambulatory care patterns changed considering the rise in virtual care in the first months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. You might also like: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated growth in the use of telemedicine but there are differences... Read more
NLP ‘Barometer’ for Analysing Local Clinical Data
2021 27 Feb
A vendor-neutral, open-source, natural language approach of EHR data is suggested by a team of U.K. researchers, to help providers plan for surges in patients, particularly in the COVID-19 context. You might also like: The WHO has developed a number of surge planning tools, which help to visualise acute and intensive care capacity... Read more
AI Helps Multilingual Patient Communication in Radiology
2021 14 Feb
A free web-based tool uses artificial intelligence to help radiologic technicians communicate with patients in various languages. You might also like : Machine Learning and COVID-19 Management The RadTranslate web app was developed at Massachusetts General Hospital’s MESH Incubator. To use the tool, a technician should... Read more
State of Mental Health: Digital Providers’ Insight
2021 12 Feb
A new research assesses the role digital providers play in the mental health support during the pandemic. You might also like: ATA & ORCHA Partner for Health App Quality Mental health had been on the radar of the World Health Organization even before COVID-19, with an estimated 1 billion people worldwide suffering... Read more