Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA.
The Dartmouth Institute, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA.
Popul Health Manag. 2020 Oct;23(5):361-367. doi: 10.1089/pop.2020.0187. Epub 2020 Aug 26.
Technology has played an important role in responding to the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic. The virus's blend of lethality and transmissibility have challenged officials and exposed critical limitations of the traditional public health apparatus. However, throughout this pandemic, technology has answered the call for a new form of public health that illustrates opportunities for enhanced agility, scale, and responsiveness. The authors share the Microsoft perspective and illustrate how technology has helped transform the public health landscape with new and refined capabilities - the efficacy and impact of which will be determined by history. Technologies like chatbot and virtualized patient care offer a mechanism to triage and distribute care at scale. Artificial intelligence and high-performance computing have accelerated research into understanding the virus and developing targeted therapeutics to treat infection and prevent transmission. New mobile contact tracing protocols that preserve patient privacy and civil liberties were developed in response to public concerns, creating new opportunities for privacy-sensitive technologies that aid efforts to prevent and control outbreaks. While much progress is still needed, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted technology's importance to public health security and pandemic preparedness. Future multi-stakeholder collaborations, including those with technology organizations, are needed to facilitate progress in overcoming the current pandemic, setting the stage for improved pandemic preparedness in the future. As lessons are assessed from the current pandemic, public officials should consider technology's role and continue to seek opportunities to supplement and improve on traditional approaches.
技术在应对新型冠状病毒（SARS-CoV-2）和随后的 COVID-19 大流行方面发挥了重要作用。该病毒的致命性和传染性混合在一起，给官员们带来了挑战，也暴露了传统公共卫生机构的关键局限性。然而，在整个大流行期间，技术响应了新形式的公共卫生需求，展示了增强敏捷性、规模和响应能力的机会。作者分享了微软的观点，并说明了技术如何借助新的、改进的功能帮助改变公共卫生格局——其效果和影响将由历史来决定。聊天机器人和虚拟化患者护理等技术提供了一种大规模分诊和分配护理的机制。人工智能和高性能计算加速了对病毒的研究，并开发了靶向治疗方法来治疗感染和预防传播。为了回应公众的担忧，开发了新的移动接触者追踪协议，保护了患者的隐私和公民自由，为辅助预防和控制疫情的隐私敏感技术创造了新的机会。尽管仍需要取得更多进展，但 COVID-19 大流行凸显了技术对公共卫生安全和大流行防范的重要性。需要未来的多方利益相关者合作，包括与技术组织的合作，以促进克服当前大流行的进展，为未来更好地防范大流行做好准备。在评估当前大流行的经验教训时，政府官员应该考虑技术的作用，并继续寻求机会来补充和改进传统方法。
