Applying AI to smartphone movement data to determine the onset and severity of COVID-19 infection

新冠肺炎给卫生当局带来的最大挑战是知道人群中谁被感染了。实时查看感染者及其症状的严重程度将使当局能够更好地管理医疗资源。一旦取消隔离限制，这种洞察力将使有针对性的接触者追踪计划成为可能。总而言之，这些措施将导致医疗成本的大幅降低，同时减少感染的传播和降低死亡率。这项提议的重点是使用从智能手机上的运动传感器收集的数据来模拟个人的健康行为。所有智能手机都有运动跟踪传感器，能够检测用户何时在移动或静止。我们的解决方案将开发人工智能来描述不活动的时间段。那些在很长一段时间内表现出运动行为变化的人将被归类为疾病，他们行为改变的程度将被用作症状严重程度的指示。使用从智能手机传感器上被动收集的数据来推断健康状态是一个非常创新的想法，与目前正在试验的其他健康监测解决方案不同，其他健康监测解决方案依赖个人自我报告自己的症状，有时需要使用专业设备。我们的建议有很多好处。与其他远程监测患者健康的尝试不同，我们的方法利用了从年轻人到老年人的绝大多数人的日常生活中广泛使用的技术，使其成为一种适用于所有人的解决方案，无论其社会经济地位如何。产生的洞察力使卫生当局能够进行实时有针对性的接触者追踪，以有效限制病毒的传播，一旦放松检疫限制，这将是当务之急。它提供整个社区感染的精细、实时视图，使医院和全科医生能够更好地针对护理并优化资源管理，从而挽救更多生命并降低护理成本。它让医生有信心让患者出院，因为他们知道他们的症状的严重程度可以远程监控。这是一个机会，使在这个项目中创建的IP可供任何开发自己的健康软件的公司使用。这将意味着以软件开发工具包(SDK)的形式发布解决方案。这将是一种高度可扩展的方式，可以将对这项工作的投资货币化，并有可能使该IP得到更广泛的使用，而不是局限于单一的健康跟踪应用。项目延期将提供额外的时间和资金来组装SDK产品。

The biggest challenge COVID-19 presents to health authorities is knowing who in the population is infected. A real time view of infected individuals and the severity of their symptoms would allow authorities to better manage medical resources. Once quarantine restrictions are lifted, this insight would enable a targeted contact tracing program. Together, these measures would lead to a dramatic lowering of healthcare costs, along with a reduction in the spread of infection and lowering of fatalities.This proposal is focused on using data collected from the motion sensors on smartphones to model the health behaviour of individuals. All smartphones have motion-tracking sensors capable of detecting when a user is moving or stationary. Our solution will develop AI to profile periods of inactivity. Those exhibiting a change in movement behaviour over an extended period will be categorised as 'ill', and the degree to which their behaviour has changed will be used as an indication of the severity of their symptoms.Using passively collected data from sensors on smartphones to infer health status is a highly innovative idea, and is different from other health monitoring solutions currently being trialled, which rely on individuals to self-report their symptoms, and sometimes requires the use of specialist equipment.The benefits of our proposal are numerous. Unlike other attempts at remotely monitoring patient health, our approach leverages technology widely used in the day-to-day lives of the vast majority of the population, from the young to the elderly, making it a solution applicable to all, regardless of socioeconomic status. The insight generated allows health authorities to conduct real time targeted contact tracing to effectively limit the spread of the virus, which will be imperative once quarantine restrictions are relaxed. It provides a granular, real time view of infections across a community, allowing hospitals and GP practices to better target care and optimally manage resources, saving more lives and reducing care cost. And it gives doctors the confidence to discharge patients knowing that the severity of their symptoms can be remotely monitored.There is an opportunity to make the IP created in this project available to any company developing their own health software. This would mean releasing the solution in the form of a software development kit (SDK). This would be a highly scalable way to monetise the investment made into this work, and would potentially see the IP used far more widely than if it were restricted to a single health tracking app. A project extension will provide additional time and funding to assemble an SDK offering.