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Artificial Intelligence in Health                                         AI in the battle against COVID-19



            6.4. Wearable Technologies                         the progression of the disease in patients, enabling timely
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            Wearable  technologies  have  been  instrumental in  the   interventions.  In addition, AI-driven algorithms have
            early detection and symptom monitoring of COVID-   been applied to remotely monitor patients’ vital signs,
            19 patients during the pandemic.  Wearable devices such   thereby reducing the exposure risk for healthcare workers
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            as smartwatches and biometric trackers continuously   and other patients. 65
            gather physiological and activity data, such as heart rate,   7.3. Telemedicine
            daily steps, and sleep patterns. AI systems then analyze this
            data to detect deviations that may indicate infection, even   Telemedicine, a component of eHealth, involves using
            before clinical symptoms manifest. 58              information and communication technology to deliver,
                                                               manage,  and  monitor  health-care  services  remotely.
              AI has emerged as an indispensable tool in the detection   During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine emerged
            and diagnosis of COVID-19. Its application in imaging,   as a vital tool, especially for patients in isolation.  It
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            symptom assessment, and wearable technology has not   enabled these patients to receive medical care without
            only expedited the diagnostic process but also enhanced   risking exposure for themselves or health-care providers
            its precision.                                     to the virus. Furthermore, it alleviated the strain on

            7. AI in COVID-19 treatment and                    healthcare facilities, conserved resources such as personal
            management                                         protective equipment, and played a crucial role in the
                                                               global management of the pandemic.
            The role of AI in the treatment and management of COVID-  The surge in demand for healthcare services during the
            19, spanning from drug discovery to patient management   pandemic has underscored the significance of telemedicine,
            to telemedicine, has proven instrumental.  By leveraging   with AI playing a crucial role in its expansion. AI has
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            vast datasets, machine learning algorithms, and predictive   facilitated  remote  diagnosis  and  consultation  services,
            analytics, AI has enabled healthcare providers to identify   ensuring continuity of care while minimizing the risk of
            potential drugs for treatment, optimize treatment   virus transmission.  Moreover, AI-powered chatbots have
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            protocols, and improve patient outcomes. The integration
            of AI in these areas not only enhances the efficiency of   been employed to provide initial medical assessments
            healthcare services but also supports the ongoing efforts   based on symptoms reported by patients, thus alleviating
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            to control and mitigate the impact of the pandemic. In   the strain on medical facilities.
            exploring the various applications of AI in COVID-19   8. AI in COVID-19 prediction and analytics
            treatment and management, this section highlights the
            innovative strategies and tools that have been developed   AI has been utilized in the domain of COVID-19
            and their significant impact on public health responses.  prediction and analytics as part of the global response to
                                                               the pandemic. AI models and NLP algorithms have proven
            7.1. Drug discovery                                pivotal in epidemiological modeling, optimizing resource
            AI has played an essential role in expediting the drug   allocation, and analyzing social media to gauge public
            discovery  process  for  COVID-19  treatment.  Machine   sentiment and disseminate information.
            learning algorithms have been utilized to predict the   8.1. Epidemiological modeling
            structure of  the  SARS-CoV-2  virus,  thereby identifying
            potential targets for drug therapy. 60,61  Furthermore, AI   AI has played a critical role in epidemiological modeling,
            platforms such as DeepMind’s AlphaFold have made   providing forecasts essential for planning and intervention
            significant contributions to understanding the protein   strategies. Sophisticated machine learning models based
            folding of the virus, which is crucial for the development of   on reinforcement learning have been employed to predict
            antiviral drugs.  The deployment of AI in virtual screening   the spread of the virus, assess the impact of public health
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            has also allowed researchers to rapidly assess millions of   interventions, and estimate the burden on healthcare
            chemical  compounds,  streamlining  the  identification  of   systems. 69,70  Neural network methods have been
            viable drug candidates. 63,64                      implemented to identify COVID-19 clusters, providing
                                                               insights into how socioeconomic factors and spatial
            7.2. Patient management and monitoring             distribution relate to the spread of COVID-19  cases.
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            In the domain of patient management and monitoring, AI   These models have been crucial in informing government
            systems have been deployed to predict patient outcomes   policies, such as implementing lockdowns and organizing
            and optimize resource allocation. Predictive analytics have   vaccination campaigns, to mitigate the spread of the
            provided healthcare professionals with tools to forecast   virus. 72


            Volume 1 Issue 2 (2024)                         7                                doi: 10.36922/aih.2401
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