“The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), and Philips today announced the expansion of the research project around their artificial intelligence-based early warning system for infectious disease. The new system prototype will be an application of the Rapid Analysis of Threat Exposure (RATE) technology and part of the DoD’s rapid response to the COVID-19 outbreak to contain its spread. The accelerated research includes COVID-19 detection among a dozen different cohorts in clinical trials, using wearable technologies such as watches and rings that can capture vital signs and biomarker information.”
“The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency also provided funding for the RATE-COVID effort and provided expertise in networking issues for DoD use. This project was also in collaboration with Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station…”
Leveraging Philips Dataset
“The RATE-COVID is designed to eventually work with any/all wearables and will be able to deploy in a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) approach in the future. Because of its broad foundation on empirical science, the RATE approach uses large-scale data machine learning and trade-space analyses across 165 different biomarkers from a rich Philips data set of over 41,000 cases of hospital-acquired infection. The risk score works for multiple general types of infection, including COVID-19. Philips scientists are looking at ways the solution can be used to detect the next new unknown infectious agent.”
“The technology could further be applied in a civilian capacity by helping to monitor hospital patients for infection prior to clinical symptoms. Moreover, the early warning solution could help organizations to manage COVID-19 return-to-work activities by helping with the early identification of individuals who may be infected and who should self-isolate and work from home…” Read the full article here.
Source: Dept. of Defense and Philips Partner on AI Tech to Contain COVID-19 – By Fred Pennic, September 22, 2020. HIT Consultant.
