Elly Yates-Roberts |
Providence Health Care (PHC) is collaborating with the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Microsoft to use artificial intelligence tools to assess Covid-19 regulations and mitigate further spread of the virus. The project will monitor social distancing and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) via cameras at PHC’s St. Paul’s Hospital campus in Vancouver, Canada.
As part of the partnership, PHC has implemented Microsoft solutions including Vision AI DevKi, which provides smart cameras with intelligent edge connectivity; Power BI, which enables fast data analysis and report generation; and Azure IoT Edge, which connects the cameras to the Azure cloud.
“The Covid-19 crisis has created new challenges and has placed unprecedented demands on Canada’s healthcare system,” said Helia Mohammadi, healthcare lead at Microsoft Canada. “At Microsoft, we have been collaborating with our partners throughout the pandemic to solve big challenges by connecting data and systems in the cloud and putting safety measures and health guidelines in place for our healthcare organisations to better support patients and healthcare professionals. Microsoft’s cloud and AI offerings, in particular solutions developed to address the Covid-19 pandemic, accelerate research findings and improve patient outcomes.”
PHC is also using Microsoft Azure Edge Devices’ new IoT DevKit private preview programme, with plans to develop new solutions for non-contact patient monitoring and monitoring of hand hygiene.