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The Morning Download: Hospital Automates the Fight Against Coronavirus
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Good morning, CIOs. Software robots, designed to automate routine work and free up humans for higher-level work, have taken on a deeper meaning in the age of coronavirus.
CIO Journal's Angus Loten reports on how Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin has deployed software robots, developed by UiPath Inc., to sort and distribute Covid-19 test results.
Higher-level work = saving lives. Collecting test results used to be a manual process taking several hours or longer, Jincy Jerry, assistant director of nursing, infection prevention and control, tells Mr. Loten. Automating the process frees staff to spend more time with patients. “The department can use existing resources in an innovative way to decrease health care-associated infection,” Ms. Jerry said.
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Students at the University of Washington in Seattle had their last day of in-person classes March 6. PHOTO: KAREN DUCEY/GETTY IMAGES
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Universities get creative with tech due to coronavirus closures. CIOs are taking stock of their actions, identifying quick solutions that could one day become permanent fixtures on a postcrisis campus, CIO Journal's Agam Shah reports.
Augmented-reality. Campus closure at Case Western Reserve University prompted CIO Sue Workman over two weeks ago to invest in its augmented reality program, shipping Microsoft HoloLens units to students. "We want them interacting,” Ms. Workman said.
Stabilizing online learning. “When there’s light at the end of the tunnel, we’ll start to look at new technologies, what’s available on the marketplace that might better meet [our] needs,” said University of Washington CIO Aaron Powell.
Personalizing the remote campus.“We want to get some analytics and information about how this whole experience went so that we make it better," said University of Utah CIO Steve Hess..
The Artificial Intelligence Index. AI is already reshaping the economy, society, our personal lives and the very nature of work, with much more to come, CIO Journal Columnist Irving Wladawsky-Berger writes.
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A robot disinfects an intensive-care unit using UV light. UVD ROBOTS
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There are robots bedecked with lamps that bathe surfaces in invisible radiation, robots with enough autonomy to safely coexist with humans while sanitizing floors 24/7, robots that can scan for fevers and enforce mask-wearing, even robots that spew antimicrobial gas in outdoor spaces. (That approach, scientists say, is probably futile.)
Importantly, many of these robots are already being used to enter environments before humans do, allowing them to prevent infection not only of patients and medical personnel, but potentially also front-line cleaning staff.
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Analysis by the WSJ's Christopher Mims
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Zoom chief Eric Yuan said the company is cooperating with authorities as it has fielded questions from 27 U.S. attorney general’s offices about the platform’s security. PHOTO: CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS
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Zoom CEO: ‘I Really Messed Up.’ The platform’s surging popularity in the coronavirus pandemic has also attracted trolls and hackers, as well as scrutiny from privacy advocates.“‘If we mess up again, it’s done," CEO Eric Yuan told The Wall Street Journal. The company is working on an end-to-end encryption feature, but it won't be ready for months.
Signing off. New York City schoolteachers are now prohibited from using Zoom and Google Classroom’s videoconferencing programs because of safety concerns, according to an Education Department memo issued Friday.
Zoombombing. The practice, where people gain unauthorized access to a meeting and share hate-speech or pornographic images, is getting organized. A New York Times analysis found 153 Instagram accounts, dozens of Twitter accounts and message boards on Reddit and 4chan dedicated to starting campaigns.
Meanwhile. Cisco Systems' videoconferencing app Webex registered a record 324 million attendees in March. Usage more than doubled in the Americas. (Reuters)
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The Air’s new Magic Keyboard—like the one on the 16-inch MacBook Pro released in November—rights all the wrongs of the past. It makes the laptop nearly perfect. In fact, there’s only one little problem I discovered with this thing, one I probably never would’ve noticed before the coronavirus hit and the entire world sheltered in place and hopped on Zoom: The webcam sucks.
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Analysis by Joanna Stern
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Bill Gates said, ‘Our money can help accelerate things. PHOTO: JEFF PACHOUD/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Bill Gates to spend billions on vaccine search. The Microsoft co-founder said Thursday his foundation will spend billions of dollars to fund the construction of factories for the most promising efforts to develop a vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus. (WSJ)
Apple diversifies the supply. Tim Cook said Sunday that the company has sourced 20 million face masks and its designers and engineers are working on creating and shipping face shields to front-line medical workers. (Twitter)
Stop with the screen touching. Mastercard last week sent a letter to banks that help process payments, asking them to remind merchants that the network no longer requires signatures, the WSJ's AnnaMaria Andriotis reports. “As the Covid-19 situation continues to evolve, public health officials have advised that it’s imperative that we all do our best to reduce physical contact with people or potentially contaminated surfaces,” the company wrote.
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Everything Else You Need to Know
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Around the world, countries are steeling themselves for a surge of coronavirus infections as the U.S. anticipates its most difficult week yet of the health crisis. (WSJ)
The inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community, who played a pivotal role in allowing last year’s Ukraine whistleblower complaint to be shared with Congress, said that President Trump fired him because of his commitment to being an independent watchdog. (WSJ)
Global air quality is improving dramatically as the outbreak sends many countries into lockdown, and groups are seeing an opportunity to press governments to make stimulus packages contingent on modernizing energy systems. (WSJ)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was hospitalized Sunday after suffering persistent symptoms of Covid-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, 10 days after testing positive, his office said. (WSJ)
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