FE ATURE
Pandemic Puts Pressure on Innovators to Speed Up AI, ‘Smart’ PPE and Other Medical Tools By ALISON McCOOK
S
omething was happening. Nearly 20 years ago, David Bray, PhD, was working as the information technology chief for the CDC’s Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program, when he noticed a strange anomaly: In China, the price of garlic had risen nearly 10-fold. Since garlic is considered medicinal by many people in China, Dr. Bray and his team knew something had to be amiss. Working with people on the ground, they learned the country was experiencing a wave of an atypical febrile illness. Months later, China revealed it had been struck by a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-1, also known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). “We knew about it five and a half months before the Chinese government said anything,” Dr. Bray said. Today, as the world reels from the effects of another novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID19), Dr. Bray has been tracking innovations that rely on more than just garlic prices to quickly spot outbreaks, such as low-cost tools that analyze viral levels in wastewater. Other exciting developments that could help protect from and prevent future pandemics include medical devices that use artificial intelligence to guide treatment decisions and “smart” personal protective equipment (PPE). The possibilities are endless, said Dr. Bray, now the director of the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center, a think tank based in Washington, D.C. The pandemic is forcing innovators to work hard – and quickly, Dr. Bray said. Most of the new ideas he encounters are one to three years away, “if not already here,” he told OR Management News. “Things will change. We won’t go back to ‘normal.’”
New Ideas for a New World To get a sense of what’s happening, the Atlantic Council recently surveyed more than 100 technology experts regarding their predictions of the effect of COVID-19 on innovation. Not surprisingly, respondents agreed that the pandemic will significantly accelerate innovation in data and AI, as well as the medical and bioengineering fields (Figure). Examples already abound. Recently, M-Sparc, a science park in Wales, held a “Hack COVID-19” event, 14
OR Management News • Fall 2020
in which it challenged innovators to find new w ways to help patients; one winner developed d a microphone that lets surgeons and otherr health care workers hear better when wearingg ee FFP3 masks. Another creation was a hands-free door opener for hospital settings, which the designer has made free to anyone with a 3D printer. And when it comes to PPE, the future is smart—smart garments specifically, which David Bray, PhD transmit information about the environment or the clothing itself. Such clothing may adjust the temperature in response to outward conditions, emit light in the dark, or even alert wearers of environmental dangers. Further, smart shoes could alert workers when someone is approaching, so they can don a mask.
