Coronavirus: how IoT is helping to mitigate the impacts of the crisis

The pandemic COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in at least 251000 deaths in the world since its appearance in December 2019. Sithout a vaccine accessible to the public, thegovernments must tackle à several fronts parallel in order to be able to mitigate the impacts of the crisis.

The Internet of Things, able to collect and process from data from a multitude of sources, geographically distributed geographically distributed, can provide concrete proposals to mitigate the effects of the COVID crisis. Review of some solutions IoT deployed in France and around the world.

1 –

Follow

contaminated patients

and ensure social distancing

Controlling the the epidemic depends largely on the tracing of people and isolating them from the rest of the population.

Sigfox, operator of very low speed network for connected objects, proposed to the government to equip the contaminated patients of connected bracelets. Thiss objects would trace the other bracelets crossed during the day and trips to the store. According to Ludovic Le Moanthe boss of the Toulouse-based startup, this solution would be less intrusiveve that the application StopCovid proposed by the government and supported by the giants Apple and Google.

The Port of Antwerp, in partnership with the Belgian company Rombitthe port of Antwerp, in partnership with the Belgian company Rombit, has made available to its employees the Romware Covid Radius: a security bracelet that rings when two people get too close to each other. In case of infection, the device also allows to trace the other employees who have been in contact with the infected persone. This solution may be of interest to in particular companies in the CONSTRUCTION or logistics companies.

The South-Korean and Hong Kong governments have introduced an electronic bracelet distributed to travelers from abroad.ger. These bracelets aim to à ensure thehe fourteen imposede to all travelers arriving to countries.

2

–

Unburden the health care system

from

s

low-risk patients

while taking care of them

In order to to diagnose and accompany symptomatic patients who are not–criticalsgovernments advocate the use of telemedicine. In teleconsultation, theIoT allows the doctor to have more precise information than the simple account declarative of the patient.

The company MedWand a stopped all other production to concentrate on on manufacturing its medical kit for quarantine: SQM DOC. The device allows physicians tos dto consult remotely their patients. Hes fewcan then listen in real time to the heart and lungs and lungs, measure respiration rates and oxygen levels in the blood, take temperatures, scan the skin and even look at the tonsils. This information is transmitted in real time to the physician who interacts with the patient via a secure portalwith no risk of contamination. The complete kit is sold to the general public for 370€.

The French startup IOM Technology develops and markets solutions end-to-end solutions interoperable solutions and scalable to collect health data, to host them on a secure cloud to HDS standards, already interfaced already interfaced with the main healthcare organizations (e.g.teleconsultation platformshealth centers, doctors).

3

–

Optimizing operations in hospitals

The company SwipeSense provides RFID (radio frequency identification) tags to track medical equipment in a hospital (e.g. respirators, ventilators, oxygen cylinders, …). This follow-up allows the hospital to optimize the use of cessential equipment. According to a study conducted before the crisis by Zion Market Researchthe global market for medical asset tracking is expected to grow by aboutevrait record an annual growth (CAGR) of 31.6% and reach 56M€ in 2025.

Facing to understaffing currents hospitalss, assistant robotss are valuable aids fors for health care staff and and patientsand patients: they allow caregivers and and staffs hospital staff of productivity gains while limiting the contact with thepatients and surfaces contaminated surfaces.

Three examples:

Lhe robots of the company Aethon help the staff to transportingu materialel medicall without touching the doors or lelevator buttons. These robots are rented to hospitals at approximately 1615€ per month.
At the hospital Forcillesin the Paris region, a telepresence robot is used to establish contact between patients and their families.
At the Médipôle in Lyon-Villeurbanne, a robot cleans the rooms by sending a strong light source based on ultraviolet rays.

4

–

Monitor and p

rotect

the streets

Thes drones are one of the most used technologies in the face of the COVID crisis.

The Canadian company Draganfly providedt drones equipped with cameras capable of detecting remote detection of coronavirus symptoms: fever, cough, blood pressure, and heart rate and respiratory rate.

A TrevolioIn the Italian municipality, a drone is already used to measure the temperature of the population. In case of detection of fever, a team is sente to monitor the person’s health status.

In France, many cities use drones both to drones both to rcall à the population of the importance of containment, and to detect individuals who do not comply with the isolation measures.

In Cannes, more specifically, the city hall has set up a cleaning drone. This drone broadcasts a product on street furniture and public space in order to them disinfect them against the virus.

The IoT is proving to be thus a powerful tool in crisis situations. Connected objects permit from collect overwhelmingly froms data for better evaluate situations and thus take more effective action, including when thehe human contact must be avoided. If today we see the contribution of the IoT in a context of health crisiswe can easily imagine a similar contribution in other crisis situations (air conditioninge, industrial, …).

BearingPoint’s IoT Business Hubin connection with its ecosystem of 200+ private and public organizations, analyzes these issues and imagines solutions of tomorrow. To join our community, register via our website:
https://www.iotbusinesshub.com/rejoignez-nous/

You wish to be accompanied on a project IoT project ? Contact our experts Sylvain Chevallier (sylvain.chevalier@bearingpoint.com) and Ouassim Driouchi (
ouassim.driouchi@bearingpoint.com
).

Authors :

Sylvain Chevallier – Partner

Ouassim Driouchi – Senior Manager

Lucas Beuvain Pacheco – Consultant

Sources

Find our previous publications

Coronavirus: how IoT is helping to mitigate the impacts of the crisis

1 – Follow contaminated patients and ensure social distancing

2 – Unburden the health care system from s low-risk patients while taking care of them

3 – Optimizing operations in hospitals

4 – Monitor and p rotect the streets

Sources

1 –

Follow

contaminated patients

and ensure social distancing

2

–

Unburden the health care system

from

s

low-risk patients

while taking care of them

3

–

Optimizing operations in hospitals

4

–

Monitor and p

rotect

the streets