The world is still in a panic with the COVID-19 outbreak still at large. this widespread disease has the world enforcing stricter health and safety procedures, canceling of large scale events, and even affecting manufacturing companies due to many factories being based in China.
With no signs of slowing down, the world is scrambling to find a solution, whether vaccine or cure, to appease this infectious disease.
Chinese multinational company, Alibaba, has surprisingly come up with new technology that utilizes the use of AI to easily detect and diagnose the COVID-19. The company, who is more known for its massive influence in e-commerce, also holds companies in various industries such as cloud computing, financial services, and healthcare.
A new report post on Nikkei Asian Review details a new diagnosis algorithm developed at one of Alibaba’s research institutes. Using data from more than 5,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the newly developed AI can distinguish differences in the CT scans of infected patients versus non-infected ones. Not only that, it’s able to do so with a 96% accuracy rate and needs only about 20 seconds to determine a diagnosis. In comparison, a normal doctor would take approximately 15 minutes to analyze the CT scans of one patient before they proceed with the diagnosis.
Currently, the report states that Alibaba’s AI technology has been implemented and tested in at least 100 healthcare facilities spanning across China, the birthplace of COVID-19. Just last February 5th, the Chinese National Health Commission had expanded the criteria for diagnosing the virus. In adding CT scans to the standard tests, patients are ensured that they will receive the needed treatment as soon as possible.
Rival healthcare organization Ping An incidentally also has a similar diagnosis system. According to The Next Web, Geoff Kau, Ping An’s co-president and chief strategy officer of the Smart City Division, said in a statement, “Since its launch, the smart image-reading system has provided services to more than 1,500 medical institutions. More than 5,000 patients have received smart image-reading services for free. The system can generate smart analysis results in around 15 seconds, with an accuracy rate above 90%.”
As of March 2, six new countries have reported cases of COVID-19, according to WHO’s daily situation report. Globally, there are now 88, 948 confirmed cases with a little over 80,000 residing in China. The death toll has now surpassed 3,000 people both in and out of China.