Innovative ideas from Ex-Chief Data Scientist, IBM and CEO of Enterprise Monkey can help the government to fight the second wave

The second wave of Covid-19 has no doubt caught unaware the government and its entire machinery. It has further exposed our health preparedness and medical emergency apparatus in India. Even after battling the first wave, needless to say that we haven’t learnt the lessons from our own mistake and from the countries that fought the pandemic effectively. There are many models and examples that can guide us in our fight against the pandemic. Maharashtra and BMC model of decentralised Covid management is one of them.

The innovative ideas and concept of Dr. Alex Liu, Founder and CEO, RMDS Lab, Advisor, Harvard Data Science Review and former Chief Data Scientist, IBM and Aamir Qutub, CEO - Enterprise Monkey Australia can help the Central and state governments to fight the second wave effectively and meaningfully.

According to Dr. Alex Liu, Founder and CEO, RMDS Lab, Advisor, Harvard Data Science Review and former Chief Data Scientist, IBM, “In my opinion, it takes a coordinated effort from the government, data science organizations, experts, health care organizations all to work together so worst situations can be avoided, then a collective effort can bring everything back to normal.

On the advantage of having big data, Alex said, “With big data, it is possible to calculate the risk (the probability or chance) of being infected by COVID19 at a specific location, with which we can also predict the number of new cases for certain locations. Therefore, this can be used to guide individuals to avoid being infected so to reduce number of cases. Also the predictions can help governments and health organizations to prepare and allocate resources in fighting against COVID19.”

The former Chief Data Scientist, IBM added, “However, achieving accurate risk assessments and predictions are not that easy, even with big data available, so RMDS 4Es framework and RMDS ecosystem approach has been employed, with help from many strong partners like the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Children's Hospital, SnowFlake, SafeGraph, ESRI ... we were able to get some good results and some good impacts. For Los Angeles, my organization the RMDS Lab co-organized a computational challenge to assess COVID-19 risks. Out from this, we produced a risk map at LA COUNTY COVID-19 RISK MAP (grmds.org) . With this risk map combined with other data analytics can help identify risk areas, and predicting risk areas so as to help governments and health care organizations to mobilize resources in fighting for possible outbreaks.”

Another idea put forward by Indian born Aamir Qutub who is presently CEO of Enterprise Monkey in Australia. According to him, “With the second wave of COVID-19 hitting our nation, we realise these are challenging times for everyone. Many people are currently overwhelmed and struggling to find essential healthcare resources for their near and dear ones when they need them the most. I’ve been hearing news of so many deaths every day from my relatives and friends in India, and there was no central resource to provide any help.”

On the innovative platform he has designed, Aamir said, “This pushed me to create a non-profit crowdsourcing verified COVID resource platform, ANGEL NEXT DOOR, which works as a real-time resource (oxygen cylinder, ICU and standard beds, plasma and food) status platform that is updated live by the general public & an automated verification system that pings the suppliers twice a day and gets them to update the stock availability. The platform is self-regulatory and self-monitoring. Since it’s an open website so people are just going in and contributing, and this helps us to collect the data by determining which city has the most demand and supply of the resources. Moreover, our platform can definitely aid the government and health organisation bodies to amplify which city/town needs to be targeted to downplay the spread as much as possible and what precautions need to be taken accordingly.”

“We thought we could use our platform to help make this a slightly less cumbersome process, so people do not have to look for healthcare items in different places. Since its launch on 26th April 2021, 100k+ people have accessed the website, and 30k+ people have come forward and helped strangers in this crisis by updating/adding the leads every couple of minutes. However, we are still in dire need of volunteers who can come forward with verified leads and sources and update the database accordingly,” said Aamir.

Similarly efforts can also be made at the local level and that idea can be expanded to far wider areas. In this regard, Dr Maskoor Ahmad Usmani, former president of the Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union said, “Very soon in the heart of Mithlanchal region of Bihar i.e. Darbhanga district we are going to start a Temporary Covid Care Centre whose work has been started. This centre will provide free health facilities in toto to the jeopardized class of the region and elsewhere. Dr. Zakir Hussain Teachers’ Training College has allotted space for the same. I personally made a visit to the place, and finally with the joint efforts our team we have been able to build up that space for the covid patients. When the government has been ignorant and not acting for the people’s welfare, it is the people who should wake up and save humanity. Soon we will start these centres in different cities of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Indian Industry should also come forward to establish such big Covid centers which will not only help the government but will do wonders for India and its people. Big industry like Reliance and TATA should take the lead to help the people of India keeping in mind their social responsibilities.