Following research on apps that listen to cough and predict COVID-19: Qatar health director

Doha: Director of the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Public Health Dr Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Thani said in an interview with QNA that it is following with interest what is being done by two leading universities, namely University of Cambridge and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) separately, to develop apps that listen to users' coughs and voices to predict whether they are infected with the coronavirus.

Updates related to coordination between technology giants such as Facebook, Amazon and Google with the World Health Organization (WHO) are also being followed up regarding the provision of digital epidemiology tools, chat robots, rapid response test kits and other technologies to reduce the epidemic and address it.

The Director of Public Health also noted the scientific studies carried out by Qatar Foundation (QF) in cooperation with the Hamad Medical Corporation and some external parties on the use of artificial intelligence, genomics and other advanced technologies used to combat the coronavirus epidemic, in addition to what Qatar University is currently doing, in cooperation with some international research centers, as it conducts 6 research studies about COVID-19.