Pune: Intending to introduce more technology-driven initiatives to accelerate the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) and to empower individuals or groups with the expertise to do so, the central government has been inviting applications for a contest called the 'COVID-19 Solution Challenge'.
The initiative has seen individuals and companies who have developed technologies and innovative solutions to tackle the current crisis with the help of 'data' at their disposal, send across these solutions to the contest portal, in turn contributing towards strengthening the country's resources in this tricky battle.
One such innovative solution has come through Gurgaon-based data scientists Ankur Phutela and Shivanuj Shrivastava. They have used their expertise to help the society.
This tech duo has used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse data provided by 373 COVID-19 patients about their experiences after being tested positive for the virus which they have used to list down the symptoms 'apart from those commonly known to the general public'.
With the help of these findings, Phutela and Shrivastava aim to spread awareness among people. Hence, they are even more alert to these symptoms, which can help them be in control of the situation at an early stage.
"Many patients reported additional symptoms along with common ones such as cough, fever, running nose, breathing difficulty, etc. For example, 10 per cent of them reported a loss of sense of taste and smell, which is unique. We have more such different symptoms in our findings," said Phutela, speaking to Sakal Times about his and Shrivastava's research.
Using their expertise
"A few weeks ago, I was reading an article about a coronavirus patient sharing his experience, who said that he had symptoms which were quite different from known symptoms. Then I decided to collate all such articles about people talking about their journeys that have been published across various media platforms, using knowledge of data and AI and that is how we started," Phutela added.
They analysed the wide range of content they collected and extracted the symptoms from it with the help of AI and Phutela says that they used learnings from their day-to-day work as data scientists and put it to even better use.
The content they collected included some of it in different languages and mediums as well, as the patients were from various highly-affected countries such as US, France, Italy, Spain, etc. and they used technology to extract the data they needed for their study.
Phutela and Shrivastava have forwarded their case study to the government authorities and into the contest, just recently.
Speaking about the same, Phutela said, "It took us three weeks and a lot of hard work to ensure the accuracy of the study. We have submitted our solution to the government, with another idea where we could collate information from hospitals as well about these symptoms, or we can do this daily, and in a more organised manner with their backing, it could help us find even more such unknown symptoms."
'More data, more insights'
While they await a response from the authorities, Phutela is exploring other ideas as well on how and in which areas the research on symptoms can be further used.
"We can also extend this research on a regional basis. For an example, the effect of the virus in coastal areas as compared to desert-like areas such as Rajasthan and whether there are a few specific symptoms that are different based on the region," informed Phutela.
The government will be keeping a close tab on all such solutions that are being sent to them. The next step would be working with the start-ups or individuals with the best ideas by providing them with the resources to further their work and research.
"More such research is the need of the hour. There is a lot of research in various other countries also that is going on, and the full support of the governments towards this is vital as they can provide so much information to us. More the data, more the insights," said Phutela.
Finding of the study:
Eligibility criteria for the contest
Rewards
1st prize - Rs 1,00,000
2nd prize - Rs 50,000
3rd prize - Rs 25,000