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COVID-19 Impact on Pharmaceutical Packaging in Chemicals and Materials Industry

COVID-19 Impact on Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market in the Information Communication and Technology Sector

  • ICT
  • Dec 17, 2021

ANALYSIS ON IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE MARKET

The spread of COVID -19 has entirely changed people’s life. COVID-19 which was originated in the city of Wuhan, China in 2019 and has been continuously spreading all over the world since then. It spread to more than 180 countries and the U.S. tops the list followed by India, Brazil, the U.K. among others. As of 14 November 2021, WHO reported 254.14 million positive cases worldwide of which 5.12 million patients have lost their lives to the virus. On a positive note, 229.80 million patients have recovered and 7.16 billion doses have been administrated globally. The pandemic has put the lockdown, travel ban, and business shutdown in most of the countries which have highly impacted the global economy. All the major industries are facing serious disruption such as a break in the supply chain, shut down of offices and manufacturing units, and many more due to the pandemic.

Artificial intelligence in the healthcare market has noted a gradual increase in its demand in the COVID-19 pandemic crises. AI-based tools and solutions can adapt to the crisis's dynamic character swiftly, at scale, and a low cost. As a result, artificial intelligence is taking a front place in the healthcare industry. Hence, the pandemic is expected to act as an accelerator for the market’s growth.

STRATEGIC DECISION BY MANUFACTURERS AND GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES AFTER COVID-19

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications are becoming increasingly popular in healthcare. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns related to our aging populations and healthcare professional shortages were already driving up AI usage in healthcare. This trend has been increased by the pandemic. Real-time contact tracing apps are only one of the many AI tools being deployed to track the virus's progress and strengthen the public health response. Many companies are coming up with healthcare monitoring platforms to diagnose and treat different diseases.

For instance,

  • In October 2021,
    F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG announced that they are collaborating with PathAI, a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology for pathology. The companies will work together to establish an embedded image analysis pipeline for pathologists as part of the agreement. This workflow will allow PathAI image analysis algorithms to be accessed through Roche's uPath enterprise software's cloud version, NAVIFY Digital Pathology. Thus the companies will be able to bring the latest leading technologies to pathologists through their digital pathology solutions. This will further ensure that patients are accurately diagnosed and receive the most effective treatment available.

Looking into the rising demand for artificial intelligence in healthcare, the government is also taking different initiatives to boost the growth of the market.

For instance,

  • In November 2020, The European Commission announced that they have awarded Euro 55.2 million to projects which use digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) to contribute to the fight against COVID-19. Thirteen projects have been chosen to provide solutions to protect healthcare personnel, as well as to swiftly detect and halt the spread of COVID-19. The Essence empathic platform, which monitors vulnerable groups, the VASCOVID portable platform, which assesses COVID-19 patients' microvascular health, and the INNO4COV-19 innovation hub, which supports COVID-19 diagnostic, preventative, and surveillance technologies, are among the solutions.

IMPACT ON DEMAND

The pandemic scenario has boosted the demand for artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry as it is capable of analyzing large data sets, combining patient insights, and resulting in predictive analysis. Obtaining patient insights quickly allows the healthcare ecosystem to identify crucial areas of patient care that need to be improved. It is also used in wearable healthcare devices to better assist patients.

For instance,

  • In September 2020, Enlitic, Inc. announced that they are collaborating with the Copenhagen-based hospitals (Herlev/Gentofte, Bispebjerg/Frederiksberg hospitals) to evaluate an AI-based algorithm in the reading chest x-rays. The medical software has been trained on chest radiographs and for the first time, it will be tested in a Nordic country. Following the validation process, the algorithm will be applied for a short time in the Nordic environment to demonstrate how medical AI will impact the workflow of Nordic healthcare providers in terms of speed, efficacy, and medical decision-making. Thus the company helped the hospitals to accurately diagnose and treat the patients
  • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital at Harvard University, is utilizing artificial intelligence to diagnose potentially fatal blood illnesses at an early stage. Doctors are employing AI-enhanced microscopes to screen blood samples for hazardous germs (such as E. coli and staphylococcus) at a faster rate than manual scanning allows. To teach the machines how to look for germs, the scientists used 25,000 photos of blood samples. After that, the machines were trained to recognize and predict dangerous germs in blood with a 95% accuracy rate. Thus, this way, the center was able to diagnose blood diseases faster

IMPACT ON SUPPLY CHAIN

Although the demand for the market is increased tremendously after the Corona period it has hampered the supply chain of the market. It was adversely affected as the lockdown prevailed in many regions globally. Companies are making their operations work according to the government regulations such as limiting the workforce and increasing the work shifts. However, there is an improvement in the supply chain as most of the facilities have opened and working in the most optimum capacity. A slowdown in manufacturing facilities has been witnessed, which has further impacted the supply chain of several industries.

CONCLUSION

In the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare system remains under immense strain. Using Artificial intelligence (AI) technology like machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) incredible outcomes and process improvements were provided. Remote patient monitoring (RPM), which is already leading to greater efficiencies and reduced costs for healthcare providers and is showing to improve clinical outcomes for patients. AI is also used to solve a variety of healthcare industry problems, including providing accurate predictions of disease surge.  

Moreover, it can accurately read and interpret millions of pieces of content in record time, organize the data, and deliver insights to clinicians to help diagnose complicated conditions and better understand treatment protocols more quickly, leading to faster therapy and improved patient outcomes. Thus AI has great potential to improve healthcare delivery which has risen its demand in the market.