Designing Futuristic Telemedicine Using Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in the COVID-19 Era

Sonu Bhaskar; Sian Bradley; Sateesh Sakhamuri; Sebastian Moguilner; Vijay Kumar Chattu; Shawna Pandya; Starr Schroeder; Daniel Ray; Maciej Banach

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2020.556789

Designing Futuristic Telemedicine Using Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in the COVID-19 Era

Front Public Health. 2020 Nov 2:8:556789. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.556789. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Sonu Bhaskar^{1

2}, Sian Bradley^{1

3}, Sateesh Sakhamuri^{1

4}, Sebastian Moguilner^{1

5}, Vijay Kumar Chattu^{1

6}, Shawna Pandya^{1

7}, Starr Schroeder^{1

8}, Daniel Ray^{1

9}, Maciej Banach^{1

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Pandemic Health System REsilience PROGRAM (REPROGRAM) Consortium, REPROGRAM Telemedicine Study Group, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
² Neurovascular Imaging Laboratory & NSW Brain Clot Bank, Department of Neurology, Liverpool Hospital and South Western Sydney Local Health District, Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Medicine Sydney, South West Sydney Clinical School, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁴ The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
⁵ Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
⁶ Department of Medicine, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁷ Alberta Health Services and Project PoSSUM, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
⁸ Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital and Project PoSSUM, Lancaster, PA, United States.
⁹ Farr Institute of Health Informatics, University College London (UCL) & NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
¹⁰ Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital Research Institute (PMMHRI) in Lodz, Cardiovascular Research Centre, University of Zielona Gora, Zielona Gora, Poland.
¹¹ Department of Hypertension, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland.

Abstract

Technological innovations such as artificial intelligence and robotics may be of potential use in telemedicine and in building capacity to respond to future pandemics beyond the current COVID-19 era. Our international consortium of interdisciplinary experts in clinical medicine, health policy, and telemedicine have identified gaps in uptake and implementation of telemedicine or telehealth across geographics and medical specialties. This paper discusses various artificial intelligence and robotics-assisted telemedicine or telehealth applications during COVID-19 and presents an alternative artificial intelligence assisted telemedicine framework to accelerate the rapid deployment of telemedicine and improve access to quality and cost-effective healthcare. We postulate that the artificial intelligence assisted telemedicine framework would be indispensable in creating futuristic and resilient health systems that can support communities amidst pandemics.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); digital medicine; pandemic (COVID-19); robotics; telehealth; telemedicine.

MeSH terms

Artificial Intelligence
COVID-19*
Humans
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2
Telemedicine*