The turn of a new decade has brought an interesting twist to the old debate on the pros and cons of technology. The unprecedented coronavirus pandemic (hereafter referred to as COVID-19 or the pandemic) has not only exposed the fragility of humanity but also a spiral of challenges that may affect our interconnected world for years to come. As the world joins forces to fight this pandemic, the role of technology in battling COVID-19 should not be overlooked. A virtual roundtable with 30 of the world’s leading digital technology experts was held in April to provide pro bono support to help fight COVID-19, and the efforts have only gained momentum since.
With the advancements in technology over the past 100-plus years since the 1918 pandemic (also known as the Spanish Flu), it only seems logical to leverage the potential of technology to fight COVID-19. During the Spanish flu pandemic, scientists were limited in their ability to see disease-causing agents that were smaller than bacteria due to the limited strength of their microscopes. Consequently, identifying the influenza virus proved to be a challenge. It was only around the 1930s that the electron microscope was invented, which led to the identification of the influenza virus and its different strains. Over a century later, significant strides have been made in gene-editing technology. Within two weeks of the coronavirus being reported, scientists were able to determine the sequence of the genetic material of the virus.
A key element in fighting COVID-19 has been the ability to disseminate information as quickly as possible, and information technologies have been of great value on this front. Several open-source information technology platforms have sprung up, easing the sharing of data and enabling a more unified response globally to the virus. An example is how in January 2020, the first genome of the 2019 novel coronavirus was placed in an open database. This enabled scientists across the globe to reasearch and develop an understanding of the nature of the virus and possible ways to treat it. Yet another example is the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard, which provides almost a real-time overview of COVID-19 global statistics.
An overarching public health goal in any pandemic is to stop transmission of the infectious disease. Contact tracing provides a systematic approach to curb infectious disease transmission by allowing for the identification, assessment and health care management for all who have been exposed to the disease. Apart from a trained workforce, contact tracing requires a system able to handle the large volumes of real-time data produced. For ease of access, mobile applications have increasingly been used to enable people to self-report symptoms and to map the location of patients using location tracking settings. This has provided an enhancement to the traditional methods of manual contact tracing, leveraged by the growing ability to provide insights from big data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorizes digital contact tracing tools into several categories: case management tools, medical monitoring tools and proximity tracking tools. These tools are focused on easing the investigation of cases and enhancing efficiencies in medical monitoring by, for example, making use of system generated alerts. An example of this is South Korea’s Corona 100m application, which alerts users if they are in a 100-meter radius of a COVID-19 infected person. Data security and privacy continue to be a challenge with contact tracing tools, coupled with a growing mistrust from the public stemming from high-profile misuses of big data from social media companies, so there continues to be a debate on their necessity, even considering their usefulness from a public health standpoint
Modes of delivering healthcare services also have been reshaped by technology as a means of breaking the transmission cycle of COVID-19. The use of telehealth technologies has been invaluable on this front. For example, in the United Kingdom, many family doctors have opted to use online consultation services such as AccuRx, which also provides a video chat tool. Several countries have enhanced their use of robots to disinfect areas, transport medical samples, automate testing and promote public safety. An excellent demonstration of this is how one of the hospitals in Wuhan, China, the first epicenter of the coronavirus, was entirely dependent on robots to meet staffing needs. Additionally, thanks to United States-based company Zipline, the use of drones has enabled the delivery of vital medical supplies, including personal protective equipment (PPE) and coronavirus test kits, to remote communities in Rwanda and Ghana.
Away from the health sector, many organizations have been forced to undergo digital transformation to enable remote working. The ease of staying connected has been enhanced through various interactive technologies that promote audio, visual conferencing and instant messaging such as Zoom and Google Meet. Additionally, to enhance accountability while working remotely, time tracking applications such as Time Doctor have become quite popular. Unfortunately, there has also been an increase in cybersecurity attacks and, as a survey carried out by ISACA indicates, 87 percent of technology professionals note an increased risk in data protection and privacy due to the short timeline organizations had to implement remote working solutions.
Overall, the main concerns arising from the increased use of technology in public health emergencies relate to legal and regulatory challenges, the inevitable creation of information security vulnerabilities and the socio-economic dilemmas that may arise. These point to the increasing need to improve policy and frameworks around data management. Despite these challenges, the role of technology in tackling the ongoing pandemic continues to be invaluable.