Jeremy Orr, MD, MPH: Leveraging AI During COVID-19

Jeremy Orr, MD, MPH

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in a number of ways to both track the spread of the disease and improve patient outcomes.

“It’s really been a bit of a revolution here,” Jeremy Orr, MD, MPH, chief executive of Medial EarlySign, said in a recent interview with HCPLive®.

At first, he said AI was used to understand how to prioritize testing. There were also challenges about how the disease was spreading and who would be at the greatest risk if they did catch.

The most important aspect is to make sure those who really need to be tested got it. If a person was younger and in good health, they may be able to go without a test, whereas an older patient with comorbidities might need to verify whether they had the disease.

As COVID-19 has evolved and resources have been allocated to ensure patients can access tests, the importance of AI switches to help with contact tracing and antibody testing. In the future, prioritizing who gets a vaccine will be of utmost importance.

“Algorithms are going to be really helpful here,” Orr said.

During the interview, Orr also mentioned challenges and early failings presented when the use of AI needed to be used.

To hear more about the use of AI during COVID-19, watch the clip from the interview with Orr below.