**5. Proposed innovations**

World economic forum has described five ways collective intelligence could prove beneficial to help combat coronavirus in developing countries. Similar strategies could be the way forward to deal with the infectious pandemic.

#### **5.1 Mapping medical supply demands**

Awareness regarding the needs and necessities of the nation is of paramount importance. Developing countries may not be able to compete with richer economies to procure resources and supplies such as masks, ventilators and other essential commodities. It has thus been proposed for frontline workers to use applications such as "Frontline SMS" to report shortage of key equipment on a common website. The reported data can be uploaded on a map showing shortage locations. This will allow local manufacturers, humanitarian agencies, government organizations and businessmen to respond and help in crisis areas. Similar technology is already in use since over a decade in Africa to map essential medicine supplies.

#### **5.2 Localized production of supplies**

When traditional logistics fail to cater to overwhelming crisis situations, organizations such as "Field Ready" have proven beneficial to procure essential supplies and equipment for care in crisis zones. "Field ready" is already functional in countries such as Nepal to cater to local demands and to improvise healthcare. Its utility can be extended to cater to COVID-19 pandemic. Governing bodies can utilize local marketplace and manufactures to fulfill essential supply demands. During COVID-19 lockdown situations, local 3D printing vendors can be allowed to operate as "essential infrastructure" thus helping economies become self-reliant.

#### **5.3 Resource and asset identification**

Identification of available assests is important. Emergency care has been burdened by increasing load of COVID-19 positive patients. Stable patients and those fit for home isolation might hoard in emergency care facilities as emergency is

readily accessible and these patients might be dwellers of overcrowded households with no opportunity to isolate themselves at their residence. In such scenarios identification and repurposing of areas such as schools, stadiums into mass quarantine centers could prove helpful.

#### **5.4 Smarter surge response**

Most countries face shortage of healthcare workers to cater to rapidly expanding patient population. Training and education activities to deploy community health workers for screening and symptom assessment could prove beneficial [26]. This would also reduce the burden of patients with minor symptoms presenting at hospital triage facilities. In India, ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) and anganwadi workers are being trained on infection prevention measures, infection control, initial patient assessment, care and other COVID-19 related topics [27]. Such initiatives can be implemented in other developing countries with gross shortage of healthcare staff.

### **5.5 Medical education**

Mobilizing collective intelligence of frontline healthcare professionals across the world can help medical staff in developing countries gain relevant and essential knowledge quickly. Praekelt.org in South Africa has introduced Health-Alert, a WhatsApp-based helpline disseminating accurate, timely COVID-19 information, with automated answers to frequently asked questions, relieving call centre traffic. Machine learning and its ability to understand natural language enable automatic triage advice and large volume conversations. Insights from real-time data support effective systems-level COVID- 19decision-making [18]. Telemedicine and internet based communications could serve as portals for percolation of knowledge among peers.

## **6. Future perspectives**

COVID-19 pandemic has taught many useful lessons to the world. Handling the chaos, judiciously utilizing the available humanitarian supplies, re-purposing resources to meet demands and striving to cater to masses affected has been the prime focus during this pandemic. Every sphere of life has been hampered by COVID-19 and left developing economies struggling. Health for all being the goal of every existing nation, emergency care during the pandemic has been hampered. To prevent and attenuate similar stressful scenarios in future, there is need for:

• Mitigation and emergency preparedness for future infectious pandemics: Infectious pandemic such as COVID-19 are public health emergencies. Applying the concepts of emergency management, such as use of Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs) and Incident Management Systems (IMS) could help public health systems protect populations impacted by health emergencies. State and national programmes to device a uniform "Emergency Management Plan" (EMP) as per CDC (Centre for Disease Control) advice for preparedness and response during pandemics is need of the hour [28]. With EMP in place nations will be aware of their resources, demands and shortcomings. During an infectious outbreak there will be reduced chaos with easier and earlier recruitment of humanitarian supplies as per the response strategy of emergency management plan.

*Practice Changing Innovations for Emergency Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Resource… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98293*

• COVID-capable/Pandemic resilient healthcare system: Existing healthcare systems need to transform into pandemic resilient healthcare setups considering the current day scenario of ever increasing disease burden. Rather than focusing on building COVID-19 patient care setups, the emphasis should now be on making the existing healthcare setups to become self-reliant to care for COVID-19 patient population. Repurposing humanitarian supplies and infrastructure to achieve this could prove useful.
