Technology saves lives during coronavirus

In a global pandemic such as COVID-19, technology,artificial intelligence, and data science have become crucial to helping communities successfully deal with the outbreak. Currently, in many parts of the world, the society is struggling with problems triggered by the coronavirus. The situation places a enormous weight on the medical industry and overwork emergency response units, confuse learning and childcare processes,and create substantial difficulties in almost every industry. Quarantine restrictions are disruptive to many businesses and entire businesses and economies.

To address the challenges posed by the coronavirus crisis in Latvian and around the world, the first fully virtual hackathon HackForce was created. HackForce is organized by volunteers from the start-up community who invite programmers, specialists and active members of the community to bring solutions. HackForce, invited everyone to submit ideas and solutions and develop prototypes as well as mentors to help develop first ideas, focusing on four key areas :medicine and healthcare (technology solutions),solutions to the coronavirus crisis (social distance, information flow, volunteering and other assistance), education ( tools and ideas for distance learning, online training, etc), and economy and business support projects.

As of now, some winners of the HackForce have already launched their projects , for instance Shield48 In consultation with the specialists at Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital, created  facial protectors were produced. The protectors  are already  being used by, and  a contract with the Nacionalais Veselibas Dienests  has been signed to make 10,000 face protectors from other countries impacted by the virus cooperating  to provide shields for their region. Moreover,a project on the manufacture of artificial respiratory equipment was established to treat patients with short-term respiratory. The team is also in negotiation with several partners so the manufacturing process can be started ASAP without going through the lengthy registering process. Other teams succeeded on developing crucial solutions if the global pandemic , by  constructing a computer and smart-device simulation program  providing training to medical staff taking care for COVID-19 patients, designing a corporate payment tool for payments management for both Valsts ieņēmumu dienests and businesses and developing a hotline and an internet platform for volunteers to connect with those in need of assistance.

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Written by : Sabina Novicka