An AI-powered audio screening system developed by Ping An’s Smart Healthcare team has helped detect over 1,600 cases of COVID-19 in China, the insurer said.
According to a statement by Ping An, since the system was launch on February 18, it has completed over 580,000 screenings across 47,000 households in 17 communities in Wuhan, and successfully identified more than 1,600 suspected cases for tracking.
As part of its efforts to curb the virus, the Wuhan municipal government conducts daily phone calls to residents, gathering information such as symptoms and body temperature. However, human operators cannot complete more than 300 phone screenings a day. The efficiency and accuracy of such calls can also vary, depending on the operator’s experience and judgement, the statement said.
Ping An said that its audio screening system has capacity for up to 3,000 AI robots working at the same time. Each AI robot can handle up to 500 auto call screenings per day, for a total of 1.5 million daily.
Ping An’s COVID-19 system applies natural language processing (NLP) technology. The system, the insurer said, can activate automated dialogue according to programmed questions, understand the semantic meaning of the conversation, structure and categorize the results for risk assessment, and report to the epidemic prevention and control management team, who can then accurately track the residents with suspected symptoms.
“Preventing and controlling an epidemic is like racing with the virus,” said Geoff Kau, co-president and chief strategy officer of Ping An Smart City. “Ping An’s COVID-19 smart audio screening system can effectively strengthen the ability to prevent and control the epidemic, resulting in higher efficiency and smarter management. As a result, epidemic prevention personnel can focus their time and efforts on more important tasks.”
