Unleashing the Power of Automation Amid Coronavirus Crisis

The world is amidst of public health emergency and fighting every day to stay healthy. The countries are lockdown, people are following social distancing and doctors are exhausting themselves giving extra care and treatment to virus-hit patients. Meantime, technologies are rising at a greater pace to assist in providing extensive care to those in need. From artificial intelligence (AI) to drones, almost all technologies are serving mankind with utmost sincerity. Automation among all is emerging as a great helper in such hour of crisis.

Recently, Kryon, a robotics process automation (RPA) provider, helped one of Israel's largest healthcare providers, Maccabi, install a system in place to automate downloads of COVID-19 test results––straight from the Israeli Ministry of Health into the healthcare system. The previous system, in which dense, data-heavy Excel files were sent to Maccabi two times a day and manually uploaded, took weeks––especially as the inputs started piling up.

"With this new RPA implementation, we're able to process updates to patient records in just minutes that used to take weeks of manual work," Harel Tayeb, CEO of Kryon, told TechRepublic. "The result is a much more streamlined process for doctors, healthcare administrators, and governments."

Maccabi has recruited Kryon in order to speed up their upload process and in just two days, its developers' team remotely implemented an automation tool. The system has not only enabled quick upload of each file from the Israeli Ministry of Health but also eliminated the human error variable. Previously, it required line by line human entries––assisting in the treatment of hundreds of people with COVID-19 in Maccabi's healthcare network of over two million patients.

The capabilities demonstrated by Kryon has depicted how the new age technologies can be employed to help companies become more efficient and productive in a pandemic situation to save several lives.

"The health and well-being of communities around the world are more important than a bottom line," Tayeb said.
AI, robotics, telehealth as majestic automation enablers have revolutionized the way healthcare services are delivered, with half of the hospitals committing to adopt AI by 2021. Meanwhile, the coronavirus crisis has determined how such automated systems are presenting unique innovations in this unprecedented time.

With already overburdened healthcare systems being strained, putting both patients, families, and healthcare workers at risk, automating the COVID-19 test delivery to ensure that every case is quickly treated will help everyone, in the long run.

"The healthcare industry is overworked, short on resources, and highly regulated," Tayeb said. "RPA will be a beacon of hope for healthcare organizations around the world as we all tackle COVID-19 together."

More and more companies can employ services like that of Kryon to offer automated services to any healthcare organizations across the globe for free.

"No company can afford to operate for free long-term," Tayeb said, "but right now, we do feel a duty to help in any way we can."

According to a CNBC report, earlier this month, a field hospital staffed by robots opened in the Hongshan Sports Center in Wuhan, China, where the pandemic began. Dubbed the Smart Field Hospital, the facility is a project involving Wuhan Wuchang Hospital, China Mobile and CloudMinds, a maker of cloud robotics systems based in China and the U.S. The Smart Field Hospital is a trial aimed at relieving exhausted health-care workers even as the outbreak in China slowed in recent weeks.

All medical services in the facility were carried out by robots and other IoT devices. Patients entering were screened by connected 5G thermometers to alert staff for anyone feverish. Patients wore smart bracelets and rings that synced with CloudMinds' AI platform so their vital signs, including temperature, heart rate, and blood oxygen levels, could be monitored. Doctors and nurses also wore the devices to catch any early signs of infection.

Apart from medical services, automation is providing new hope to halted businesses and productions in lockdown countries. Specifically, in China, as the situation becomes a bit relieved than before, manufacturers and companies are moving towards increased automation abilities to jump-start their economic worth, while not triggering any new COVID-19 cases.