[Huawei Developers] Martin Bieber:
The coronavirus pandemic is taking lives and changing the way we work and learn. This is a time where the value of digital transformation and advanced ICT are demonstrated and needed in areas such as healthcare, education, and business continuity.

Facing these challenges has become the top priority of any nation that wishes to get through these difficult times. Thus advanced ICT and digital transformation programs have become a must-have necessity rather than a nice-to-have in the future.

For example, we have seen how the pandemic has moved technology needs to the forefront, with virtual education and meetings increasing in prevalence. In the healthcare key sector, we’ve seen how telehealth and telemedicine have started to become the new normal.

No Longer Sci-Fi

Artificial intelligence has proven how it can play a significant role in assisting the overwhelmed healthcare sector.

Advanced AI-assisted diagnosis and screening solutions can help clinicians assess the CT scans, saving much in the way of effort and time for overworked doctors. The system goes through hundreds of CT images and gives results in about tens of seconds, automatically recognizing lung lesions and measuring lesion volume.

This solution is also great for remote areas or regions lacking medical expertise, and where it takes a long time to screen for the virus.

This is not only helping hospitals to manage increasing number of patients and cases, but can be extended to cover multiple disease scenarios, improving accuracy and helping the healthcare sector to have a unified and centralized database that can help perform precise follow-up and sophisticated scenario analysis, projection, and forecasting.

The Huawei AI-assisted diagnosis solution has been successfully tested, deployed and has gained valuable hands-on experience for its accuracy and effectiveness, not only in China, but in other countries around the globe.

The use of AI in such field is really promising, not only for the current pandemic, but for challenges facing long-term healthcare services that handle a range of diseases and conditions.

Health and Economy are Two Sides of the Same Coin

The expansion of advanced ICT into the world of science and medicine has resulted in various innovations that have improved the medical field, not just in diagnoses and treatment, but also in facing national challenges. This has opened the way to new solutions that ultimately save lives in the fight against diseases that affect millions of people around the world, driving economic growth as well as improving life and overall well-being.

There is no doubt that advanced AI technology is accelerating the digital transformation path in the healthcare sector, bridging demand/supply gaps much faster while improving healthcare services, affordability, and quality.

This kind of digital transformation is definitely a great example of the benefits of close cross-sector collaboration, not only between ICT, healthcare research institutions, hospitals, medical professional and imaging AI experts, but also extends to cross-borders, international Organizations, policy makers, and governments. The more the model is expanded, the more benefits will be achieved.

By Medhat Mahmoud.Medhat is a core member in Huawei’s global Digital Transformation Office.