Healthcare organizations and hospitals across the country continue to prepare for what seems like an inevitable influx of COVID-19 patients. To better handle the situation, some hospitals have begun using artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically detect fever symptoms in patients and visitors.
The Tampa General Hospital in Florida made news as it installed a new AI system that can detect symptoms of fever just through a basic facial scan. Additionally, the hospital is also using a specialized AI-powered sensor that can predict when a patient is at risk of experiencing more severe COVID-19 symptoms, such as respiratory failure, hours before the initial onset of said symptoms.
Image source: Getty Images.
Hospitals have already started making COVID-19 preparations, including suspending elective surgeries, among other measures. As AI continues to prove effective in detecting patient symptoms, it wouldn't be surprising for more hospitals around the country to start implementing this technology, as well.
Further details
AI technology is being used in a number of different ways to help handle the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to hospitals, medical researchers are encouraged to use AI to data mine the 29,000 or so academic articles regarding COVID-19 and other coronaviruses. The idea is that this technology can help discover insights that otherwise would be impossible for a human to find due to the sheer volume of data.
Although niche healthcare stocks, such as telehealth service provider Teladoc, have done well over the past few weeks, many hospital groups have dropped. HCA Healthcare (HCA -0.13%) has seen substantial declines in its stock price as investors worry that its hospitals could be overwhelmed by the sheer number of expected COVID-19 patients.
