Daily Maverick
Dailymaverick logo

Maverick Citizen

Maverick Citizen, Op-eds

Game-changer — AI-powered apps can revolutionise public health

Game-changer — AI-powered apps can revolutionise public health
Eric Klasson and Wilmot James
By Eric Klasson and Wilmot James
15 Sep 2024
Facebook
0
The integration of AI into digital health apps is a game-changer for managing not only the mpox response, but any infectious disease outbreak.

The ongoing mpox outbreak in Africa is a stark reminder of the persistent threat of infectious diseases. It also highlights a game-changing opportunity to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and digital health applications in response to not just mpox, but any future infectious disease outbreaks.

AI’s transformative potential, when integrated into digital health tools, can empower individuals and healthcare providers, enabling a more rapid, effective and equitable response to emerging health threats.

The rapid advances in AI over the past few years, particularly since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, offer a glimpse into a future where data-driven insights and intelligent tools can empower us to act swiftly and decisively against emerging health threats. AI-powered digital health apps can serve as critical tools in this endeavour.

Imagine two innovative applications: one designed for people to safely self-navigate infectious disease outbreaks and another tailored for community health workers to efficiently provide vaccinations and medical care. Both can revolutionise public health responses and enhance our ability to manage outbreaks proactively. 

During an infectious disease outbreak, timely and accurate information is crucial for the public to make informed decisions. An AI-powered app that helps individuals and families self-navigate outbreaks by providing real-time, personalised guidance based on the latest information can radically improve infectious disease response and containment.

The consumer app would deliver easy-to-understand and concise summaries of the pathogen, the most vulnerable cohorts, local exposure risk factors, a person’s risk of death if infected, and the availability of vaccinations and infection treatment.

Such an app offers a single source of truth for informed infectious disease management tailored to each family’s circumstances. The actionable insights are a lens into prevention measures, symptom monitoring and when to seek medical care.

Read more: #InTheSpotlight — beyond the hype, what might AI actually mean for healthcare in SA?

Imagine AI-driven features that enable users to identify symptoms using image recognition (eg, skin lesions for mpox) or assess exposure risk through predictive modelling. These capabilities democratise access to critical health information, allowing people to manage their health proactively rather than reactively.

The app could also offer anonymous reporting features, enabling users to contribute data that improve public health surveillance without compromising privacy. In essence, this AI-powered tool would empower individuals to act as informed agents in their communities, helping to slow the spread of infectious diseases and alleviate the burden on healthcare systems.

AI-enhanced app for community health workers


Community health workers are the backbone of healthcare delivery in many under-served regions, particularly in Africa. An AI-powered digital health app tailored for these workers can enhance their ability to provide timely vaccinations and medical care for those affected by an infectious disease outbreak.

By integrating AI, the app can optimise resource allocation, such as identifying areas with the highest vaccination needs based on real-time data analysis of infection rates, demographic information and vaccination coverage.

Furthermore, the app can incorporate AI-driven diagnostic tools, enabling community health workers to quickly and accurately diagnose diseases in remote settings where access to advanced medical equipment is limited. AI can guide healthcare workers through diagnostic procedures, ensure adherence to treatment protocols and offer real-time decision support based on the latest medical guidelines.

By streamlining data collection and reporting, the app would also reduce the administrative burden on community health workers, allowing them to focus more on patient care. The ultimate goal is to maximise the impact of each health worker, ensuring that the limited resources available are utilised most effectively to save lives. 

The availability of smartphones across Africa is a powerful enabler for improving mpox response efforts. With smartphones, individuals and healthcare workers can easily access AI-powered digital health apps, making critical information, diagnostic tools and real-time guidance more accessible than ever before.

These devices facilitate rapid communication, data sharing and symptom tracking, empowering people and healthcare workers with timely and actionable information. Additionally, smartphones enable telemedicine consultations, reducing the need for in-person visits and minimising transmission risk.

The widespread use of smartphones can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of infectious disease management and response.

AI’s broader potential 


The mpox crisis in Africa underscores the urgent need for such AI-powered solutions. The challenges are immense: slow data dissemination and lack of data in general, overwhelmed healthcare systems and a lack of accessible information and resources.

Read more: No mpox jabs for SA yet, but WHO and Africa CDC will help fund the fight against the outbreak

AI can help bridge these gaps, empowering communities, healthcare workers and public health agencies with the tools they need to fight this outbreak and prepare for future ones.

AI technologies can democratise access to health resources by allowing community members to self-diagnose potential symptoms using just their phones and by helping to rapidly train and deploy frontline community health workers.

AI call centres and agents can help anonymously gather information from suspected and confirmed cases, reducing the heavy manual burden of traditional contact tracing and case investigation. AI can develop targeted interventions, helping public health decision-makers decide where to most effectively apply their limited resources, such as vaccines, to optimise their impact.

The path forward 


Realising the potential of AI-powered digital health apps requires immediate and sustained investment in AI research, development and infrastructure.

We must prioritise the development of AI-powered tools and technologies specifically tailored to the needs of Africa, ensuring they are accessible, affordable and culturally relevant. Moreover, investment in training and capacity building is essential to empower healthcare workers and communities to leverage these tools effectively.

The urgency of investing in AI capabilities is clear. We have a unique opportunity to harness AI’s potential to combat the current mpox outbreak and build a more resilient global health infrastructure. By supporting AI research, development and deployment, we can empower healthcare workers, public health agencies and communities with data-driven insights and intelligent tools needed to respond effectively to emerging health threats.  

By embracing these advancements and investing in AI technologies now, we can build a more resilient and responsive public health infrastructure, ensuring we are prepared to face future pandemics with the full force of human ingenuity and technological innovation.

The forthcoming World One Health Congress, which will be held in Cape Town on 19-22 September, will devote considerable focus to next-generation digital technologies in healthcare and pandemic response.

These technologies can deliver highly effective interventions that prevent disease outbreaks from spiralling into epidemics and pandemics, thus obviating the use of blunt instruments like travel bans and lockdowns.

AI and digital health apps working in concert with existing countermeasures can only improve any infectious disease response. The elegance of AI is its self-learning foundation. With each new outbreak, the technology quickly adapts, becoming increasingly effective at pathogen containment. DM

Eric Klasson is the founder and CEO of Resilienci.ai. Wilmot James is a professor and senior adviser at Brown University’s School of Public Health’s Pandemic Centre.

Categories:

Tags: