Hadiel, an African SaaS Company, has launched a new AI symptom checker to support personal clinical evaluation of COVID-19 by users before testing, thereby closing the gap between testing centres and possibly symptomatic patients across Nigeria, and other African cities
The tool, powered by Mediktor, collects data on symptoms and health situations as described by the user, and provides risk grading and differential diagnosis – information on other existing illnesses that goes beyond COVID-19 symptoms. Other unique features of the symptom checker include its high accuracy; assessment in less than two minutes and the ability to download or printing of personalized reports.
“Nigeria is currently dealing with almost 300 cases of Coronavirus cases, and over 10,000 cases on the continent. Apart from confirmed patients, millions of Africans are dealing with uncertainty and panic due to limited testing and information overload”, said Joe Akinlua Chief Product Officer Hadiel. “Usually, people can develop more common symptoms such as fever, cough, body pains, which are also very similar to those caused by SARS-CoV-2. The A.I checker is an important tool that can provide a useful diagnosis for users, and also let them know when it is actually essential to contact the NCDC hotline.”
“For both the patients and those at the forefront in the fight against the pandemic – doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and even the government, it is important that we make informed and data-driven decisions. By allowing users to print their reports from the tool, they can also easily compare and confirm a diagnosis with the local health authorities, who can quickly provide them with access to testing and treatment”, he said.
In response to the Covid19 pandemic, Hadiel is taking the machine-learning lead by deploying the Artificial Intelligence-driven symptom checker for African cities. The company recently rolled out its first phase of 5,000 evaluations, thereby addressing testing issues and closing the gap between the centres and possibly symptomatic patients.
With its headquarters in Lagos, Hadiel leverages health data to generate disease trends and map behavioural health patterns via data science & A.I. A quick test on the tool, https://hadiel.mediktor.com/en reflects that a sore throat occasionally accompanies a coronavirus infection, although it is more often a sign of the common flu or cold, while sneezing is not confirmatory of the coronavirus.
Experts have also explained that determining the difference between a panic attack and COVID-19 can be an extremely difficult task for anyone suffering from an anxiety disorder. A minority of COVID-19 patients do experience nasal congestion or a runny nose – less than 5 per cent of people experience these symptoms, according to the World Health Organisation. But prominent COVID-19 symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue, fevers, and possible loss of smell or taste.
In partnership with www.oncopadi.com, a digital clinic that provides video and audio consultations, people can also consult with specialists on COVID-19 related symptoms and other health issues through their phones, which has become crucial during the pandemic due to limited access to doctors.
