New Study Reveals How AI Can Help to Better Prepare for a Possible Next Global Pandemic

After the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged across the globe, taking countless lives, experts joined their hands to create drugs and vaccines to fight the virus that caused it. But there were no preventive measures for protecting oneself against any global pandemic. It turns out, that Artificial Intelligence (AI) might be the solution to this problem and it just might help experts prepare for possible pandemic cases in the future, per a study published in the scientific journal, Nature. 

The study mentioned how AI can revolutionize research around infectious diseases and help people prepare for pandemics like COVID-19. The study was conducted by Moritz U. G. Kraemer, a Professor of Epidemiology and Data Science at the Department of Biology and Pandemic Sciences Institute with the contribution of scientists from Africa, America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. The study was helmed by Oxford University and focused on using AI to ensure early detection of pandemic cases and target interventions.

The study emphasized how there was an urgent need to integrate AI into public health systems by using AI safely and ethically. It just might help in addressing challenges such as the limited availability of data and complexities of disease prediction. The experts predicted that AI has the potential to transform and prepare humanity for pandemics in the next five years by predicting the trajectory of outbreaks. AI will also offer help to identify high-risk areas and elevate healthcare resources.

"We're thrilled to collaborate with AI scientists globally to shape the future of infectious disease modeling. At CERI, we believe AI is poised to revolutionize science, particularly in epidemiology, by enhancing data analysis. Our team is already using AI and machine learning to tackle pressing research questions, from disease distribution and virus classification to phylogenetics and predicting climate-driven migrations, addressing pathogens like dengue, SARS-CoV-2 and more," Dr. Houriiyah Tegally, the head of the data science unit at the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), said in a statement. 

The research identified certain opportunities for AI to prepare for identifying pandemics before they spread. AI would help to improve the current models that already help detect such diseases by making them more accurate and realistic. AI also promises to pinpoint areas of high transmission potential, helping ensure limited healthcare resources can be allocated in the most efficient possible way. Along with that, AI will accelerate the development of vaccines and identify new variants of pathogens like SARA-CoV-2 and influenza viruses. AI would also power wearable tech gears to monitor pandemic outbreaks. 

"While AI has remarkable transformative potential for pandemic mitigation, it is dependent upon extensive worldwide collaboration and from comprehensive, continuous surveillance data inputs,"  one of the study authors, Professor Eric Topol, the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, explained in a publication released by the University of Oxford.

"The AI program in South Africa is well advanced in collaboration with Oxford University, University of Copenhagen, African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) and Google DeepMind. We now have a whole team of mathematicians, data scientists, and engineers working together to advance the use of AI in infectious diseases," Professor Tulio de Oliveira, Director of CERI, said in a statement.