Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technology has played an important role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AI has been used during the health emergency to perform clinical studies on COVID-19 prediction and diagnosis systems, as well as to better manage available resources in hospitals. In addition, AI has great potential for finding information patterns in large amounts of medical data.
Research on COVID-19 has produced a large amount of data in record time. Through research conducted by government agencies, universities, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, among others, it has been shown that AI has been key to develop prevention strategies and also key to the development of vaccines.
José Tomás González, strategy director at a digital transformation company explained the following about AI and its application during last year's health emergency: "With the processing of information, the simulation of processes and clinical trials or the ability to predict the evolution of the pandemic to adopt the necessary strategies, AI is presented as the most lethal tool against Covid-19".
However, privacy is one of the most relevant issues when applying AI. For example, the implementation of contact-tracking applications has opened the debate on the handling and protection of user data.
A new medicine considers the 5Ps: preventive, participatory, personalized, predictive and population-based. "It is not about replacing professionals, but about having a lever for a medicine of the future, which is already present, faster and of quality, more efficient and productive, that reduces costs and that, in other words, saves lives and improves people's well-being and safety," Gonzalez explained.
