The Covid-19 crisis has brought several issues to the fore. These include the strain on healthcare manpower, job losses in certain industries and the state of migrant worker dormitories.

It is high time we prioritised the development and adoption of new technologies, which are important, as our experience with Covid-19 has shown.

First, boost innovation and the development of new technology for more functions at a faster pace.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been adopted by way of robots being deployed as safe distancing ambassadors, so that fewer public servants need to move around parks to remind residents to keep away from one another.

Robots have also been dispatched to deliver food and facilitate video conferencing at community isolation facilities, which house patients with mild symptoms of Covid-19 and others who are on the road to recovery.

Why not invest in robots that can cover more job scopes? For example, real estate firms in countries like China have employed construction robots to carry out tasks such as brick laying, painting, loading and bulldozing. The use of AI may reduce Singapore’s reliance on migrant workers.

To be sure, investing in AI comes with costs, but it may well be worthwhile, considering the dangers and healthcare costs that result from the cramped living environments of migrant workers.

Second, optimise digital health and telemedicine for greater efficiency.

While initiatives such as the Vital Signs Monitoring platform can reduce the need to manually take a patient’s parameters like blood pressure, research and development can focus on further reducing healthcare manpower.

A possibility is to develop AI that can take nasal or oropharyngeal swabs. This will not only lighten the workload of healthcare workers, but reduce the potential infection risks for nurses and other healthcare professionals, thereby lowering healthcare costs.

Other possible areas of exploration would be to use AI to take wound cultures, Pap smears, insert nasogastric tubes or urinary catheters while ensuring patient safety, with an explanation of the procedure done via a teleconsultation.

Third, train displaced workers and national servicemen, for example, to operate these new technologies through skills upgrading and training programmes.

They may be trained in giving first aid, taking swab samples, and operating and maintaining these machines in a health crisis. For the national servicemen, this can be part of basic military training rather than reserved only for medics.

While National Service is meant to build a force to protect the country in wars, a pandemic offers a timely opportunity for national servicemen to put the skills learnt in the military to use in service of the nation.

Indeed, there have been heartening endeavours to turn Singapore into a Smart Nation, but efforts towards this goal must be accelerated.

ABOUT THE WRITER:

Dr Alvona Loh Zi Hui is a junior doctor who worked at a public hospital before being deployed recently to a polyclinic providing swab facilities in view of the Covid-19 outbreak.

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