Search Tag: COVID-19
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
2021 11 Feb
A team of Canadian researchers analysed the shift from office to virtual care early on in the COVID-19 pandemic and identified the degree of change in various patient populations. You might also like: Not Everyone Is Ready for Telehealth The pandemic has caused significant changes in how care is delivered, and a turn to telemedicine...Read more
2021 11 Feb
The U.S. Kaiser Permanente system reports on the efficiency of its special telemonitoring programme for COVID-19 patients. You might also like: Remote Work and Virtual Consultations: Emergency Setup The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted demand for general medicine providers and reduced it for subspecialty services. To address...Read more
2021 06 Feb
A new report from ETSI analyses and compares various contact tracing applications and methods utilised to help mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. You might also like: Automated Contact Tracing: Is It Efficient? With its report, Comparison of existing pandemic contact-tracing systems, ETSI’s Europe for Privacy-Preserving...Read more
2021 01 Feb
The costs of loneliness, and telepresence as a social snack In this space I explore monthly topics, from concepts to technologies, related to the necessary steps to build Digital Healthcare Systems. For the month of February 2021, I have invited Prof. Luisa Lima to co-author a brief article on ‘The costs of loneliness and...Read more
2021 31 Jan
A new research looks into the use of digital contact tracing (DCT) technologies during the pandemic, based on a real-life controlled experiment in Spain. You might also like : Automated Contact Tracing: Is It Efficient? While several countries have deployed DCT applications, to date there is no evidence that such digital...Read more
2021 24 Jan
The overwhelming majority of people in the UK support the use of co-location tracking technologies and introduction of immunity passports by the authorities to contain the spread of COVID-19, a new study shows (Lewandowsky et al. 2021) . You might also like: (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)? COVID-19 ‘Immunity Passports’...Read more
2021 15 Jan
Leaders from healthcare and tech industry, including Mayo Clinic, Microsoft and Oracle, are joining forces in the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI) to establish a standard for digital vaccination records. You might also like: COVID-19 Vaccines: Need for Global Tracking System The new initiative aims to provide every...Read more
2021 14 Jan
A new systematic review (Syeda et al. 2021) analyses artificial intelligence (AI) -based methods utilised to tackle the pandemic and provides insights into different COVID-19 themes. You might also like: AI Tool Helps to Reduce COVID-19 Mortality Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare organisations have...Read more
2021 04 Jan
The United States, where COVID-19 cases continue to rise, is racing to vaccinate as many people as possible to curb further spread of the virus. The inoculation drive, however, poses a major IT challenge as the country's data infrastructure lacks the capacity to efficiently track COVID-19 vaccine distribution and its use (who got vaccinated,...Read more
2020 14 Dec
A new addition to the COVID-19 Risk Tools suite by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an online mortality calculator , assesses the risk of dying from COVID-19 in currently uninfected individuals. It has been presented in an article published in Nature Medicine (Jin et al. 2020) and is available online for interested public...Read more
2020 12 Dec
As the world's first COVID-19 mass vaccination programmes are underway in the UK, the U.S. and some other countries, a new paper (Vander Stichele et al. 2020) highlights the need for global monitoring of vaccine use (who was inoculated with which vaccine product, where and when) as well as its safety and effectiveness. You might...Read more
2020 10 Dec
Two different devices aimed at improving the quality of a uscultation, the action of listening to sounds from the body, lungs in particular, have been recently presented to the medical community. One is a lung sound recording system (LSRS) from TU Graz and the other is a digital stethoscope from John Hopkins’ James West. ...Read more
2020 23 Nov
The COVID-19 pandemic puts much strain on healthcare resources. One way to expand hospital bed capacity is through the use of telemedicine. Atrium Health's "hospital at home" (AH-HaH) is a good example of how telemedicine programmes can be ramped up to provide acute hospital-level care for patients in their own home. You might also like:...Read more
2020 05 Nov
A joined initiative in Singapore is developing an open-sourced system that wirelessly collects oxygen levels data from pulse oximeters and presents it on a dashboard, aiming to boost COVID-19 fight. You might also like: Wearables Data for COVID-19 Detection Availability of well-structured, easy-to-read health...Read more
2020 04 Nov
A combination of symptom and sensor data from wearable devices could enhance detection of COVID-19 positive and negative cases in symptomatic individuals, a new study shows (Quer et al. 2020). You might also like: AI Tool Helps to Reduce COVID-19 Mortality Study authors, affiliated with the Scripps Research Translational...Read more