A month since its launch as a pilot project in Quezon City, the AI-powered free SMS platform BantAI Covid system is now proving to be an effective tool in combating the coronavirus pandemic, thereby complementing the citywide effort to flatten the curve.
Developed by a group of medical practitioners, headed by Dr. Loysa Orense, President of VIREO LOADWORKS, INC., the AI-powered system utilizes the SMS platform in contact tracing triaging, monitoring and providing telemedicine and referrals to hospitals and quarantine to suspected and probable cases of COVID-19.
This was the solidarity response of the Quezon City Local Government, Philippine Medical Association, Quezon City Medical Society, and Vireo Loadworks under the BantAI Covid project.
Under the BantAI Covid, the COVID-positive close contacts are enrolled by the City Epidemiological Surveillance Unit after the RT-PCR testing, then the system will be contact tracing and monitoring daily the symptoms via SMS for all in-home quarantine suspected and probable cases, and send daily reminders on health protocols. In addition, health coaches and doctor volunteers from the Philippine Medical Association will triage both the symptomatic and identified COVID depending on the symptom and co-morbidities and consequently, make referrals to hospitals or quarantine facilities managed by the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team (BHERTS) whenever necessary.
Capable of operating and responding remotely, the system is accessible to individuals with cellphones, with or without Internet, across all network service providers. This also enables the system to do away with face-to-face contact between health workers and the enrollees of the program.
“The services provided can help patients, their families and close contacts manage mild COVID-19 cases at home. This way, they could receive timely medical advice and help contain the spread of COVID-19. At the same time, hospitals and healthcare facilities will not be burdened for cases that could be managed at home while those in need of hospitalization can be given proper attention,” said PMA President Dr. Benito Atienza.
With analytics in place, the system is able to provide data real time per barangay, per district and citywide that is made available and accessible 24/7. As a result, “the local government can monitor if there’s a sudden surge in cases in a certain area, in any given time. And this makes for sound decisions where resources will be allocated and utilized,” added Dr. Loysa Orense.
The data that is generated by the BantAI Covid system is very important to guide our medical experts and policymakers in crafting strategies in dealing with the containment of the spread of Covid-19.
“The analytics that the BantAI COVID has is a first in the world. It is very extensive” said Atty. Bu Castro, Ethic Committee, Philippine Medical Association
“This is a helpful technological tool that has contributed in our contact tracing efforts. Moreover, we need to make decisions based on data from this platform. I also embrace this technology to ease the burden of our front liners, and the patients as well. When there’s isolation during the quarantine and there’s a health professional looking out for you, someone who cares and coaches you, for me, that’s very important, and this technology helped us fill that gap. One of the most important tools that we have embraced, one of the greatest decisions I’ve made as the local chief executive of Quezon City is to say yes to BantAI COVID ” said by Mayor Joy Belmonte. “I would also like to stress the importance of public-private partnerships at this time. The government cannot do this alone, we need the expertise, the skill set and the commitment of the private sector in our effort to overcome the Covid pandemic,” the Mayor added.
“We are proud to introduce this to the public as one of the best practices in this global pandemic, providing an end to end solution to the city, something we would like to bring to other areas infected with COVID. We thank Mayor Joy Belmonte and Quezon City Medical Society who believed in us and allowed us to contribute what we can in this pandemic, together we fight, together we beat COVID-19, ” said Dr. Loysa Orense in response.
In addition, Dr. Teodoro Herbosa, Special Adviser, National Task Force Against Covid 19 said during the recently held Press Conference via zoom, “When presented with this project, I was very impressed because it utilized technology, made use of the public-private partnership model, and of course, the human aspect of the system. I was also immediately struck by how it provided the tools to actually contain the virus.”