AI and COVID-19 in Indonesia
By Jum’atil Fajar*
Hospital: RSUD dr. H. Soemarno Sosroatmodjo Kuala Kapuas (Photo by Jum’atil Fajar)
The first case of COVID-19 in Indonesia was announced by President Joko Widodo on 2nd March 2020. Following this announcement, the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology immediately formed a Task Force for Research and Technology Innovation for Handling the COVID-19 Pandemic. This institution consists of various elements such as research and development institutions, government, universities, communities, industry, hospitals and start-ups.
One of the tasks of this Task Force is to develop AI for COVID-19 Detection. This detection system uses AI from CT-Scan and X-ray photos, and was piloted in 10 hospitals. The purpose of this system is to help radiologists and doctors speed up the process of diagnosing COVID-19 and is complementary to detection based on reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
At the same time (early March 2020), one of the world’s largest technology companies also offered Indonesia use of its Cloud and AI technology to help accelerate the diagnosis of COVID-19. However, because the CT-Scan images of Indonesian patients had to be sent to cloud computing companies in China, the government decided to make its own technology. Until now, only two hospitals in Indonesia have utilised this company’s technology.
Apart from serving on a national scale, several universities in Indonesia are also trying to develop ways to detect COVID-19.
The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Indonesia, in collaboration with Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital and Delft Imaging Netherlands, developed The Fight COVID-19 Study. This study used computer-aided detection for COVID-19 (CAD4Covid). For their diagnostic research, they used a predictive model based on monitoring the effectiveness of AI use on X-rays, compared with the RT-PCR test in patients with COVID-19 cases.
Researchers from the Eresha School of Informatics and Computer Management used an open-source library that provides a Python interface for artificial neural networks (Keras) and an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning (TensorFlow) to train a COVID-19 detector. It was able to obtain 90-92% accuracy on test sets with 100% sensitivity and 80% specificity (this is due to limited datasets).
Gadjah Mada University made a GeNose tool that can detect and diagnose whether someone is infected with COVID-19 through breathing. This tool detects Volatile Organic Compound (VOC), which is formed due to the COVID-19 infection and is spread through the patient’s breath. The breath will be sensed by sensors. The data are processed with the help of artificial intelligence. GeNose is currently undergoing clinical trials.
The existence of AI in Indonesia is not only used to detect COVID-19, but also to monitor compliance with health protocols. The governments of Jakarta, East Java and Gorontalo use AI to monitor compliance with using masks and maintaining social distance at train stations, malls, traditional markets and other public facilities.
Armed with the experience of implementing AI in handling COVID-19, this pandemic has become one of the national issues for the national artificial intelligence strategy. This strategy reveals several innovations that have been implemented such as early detection and diagnosis of infections. However, there are still many innovations that have not been implemented, namely the projection of cases and deaths, development of drugs and vaccines, workload reduction of health workers, and disease prevention.
From the description above, it appears that there are still many opportunities for innovation that can be done by AI practitioners and activists to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
* Jum’atil Fajar is an AI enthusiast. He holds a Masters degree in Health Sciences. He helped develop the hospital management information system. He currently manages the Hospital Accreditation Data Management Information System.
First Event of the AI Leadership Academy
18th February 2021 @ 15.00 CET (Brussels)
Equality in the digital era:
AI and anti-discrimination law in Europe
The AI Leadership Academy is an initiative aiming to inspire articles from different topics. We want to spread the knowledge that enables different stakeholders from different sectors to play a role in leading sustainable development with AI.
With the aim of achieving this goal, the Leading with AI blog founders have invited Raphaële Xenidis to share her experience in the field of AI and anti-discrimination law in Europe.
Speaker Biography: Raphaële Xenidis is currently a Marie Curie Fellow at courts at the Faculty of Law of the University of Copenhagen and a lecturer in European Union Law at the University of Edinburgh Law School. Previously, Raphaële was a researcher in equality law at the International and European Law Department of Utrecht University, where she worked for the coordination team of the European Network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination, and as a researcher with the RENFORCE research centre, the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) and the Gender and Diversity Hub. Raphaële obtained her Ph.D. at the Department of Law of the European University Institute where she wrote her dissertation on the question of intersectional and multiple discrimination in EU and ECHR law.
This free, virtual event will take place on Thursday, 18th February at 15.00 CET (Brussels). Please register via this Eventbrite link.
We look forward to seeing you there to share the knowledge to lead with AI