Today the CDEI publishes its report on local government use of data during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report draws together the findings of a forum discussion hosted last year with local authority representatives, and is supplemented by individual interviews and …
Almost all (13 of 16) of this month’s entries were related to healthcare, with the majority of those specifically looking at use-cases in hospitals. Given that the UK faces an ongoing public health crisis and is entering a second-wave of coronavirus infections, it is not surprising that these use-cases are the most prevalent at this time.
The primary purpose of the majority of use-cases has been to support the local response and mitigate the effects of lockdown. However, we are starting to see examples of use-cases designed to build future resilience and aid the recovery; these have been particularly prominent in the transport sector. For example, the Commonplace Mapping Tool which allows users to highlight pinch points across Glasgow City Centre, where measures such as pavement widening and new cycle lanes could be introduced to help people maintain physical distancing.
The majority of our May use-cases relate to a pivot of existing AI or data activity to a new context, for example the development of an open-sourced COVID-19 vulnerability index which identifies people most at risk of severe complications. The index utilises an AI predictive model and is being used by healthcare organisations and insurance companies in the US to target assistive services.