What can a transportation management company do for a city’s homeless population?
Well, when it’s an AI-based company, quite a bit, actually, and with a remarkably short turnaround time.
According to Digital Journal, Boston-based Routable AI, which develops AI-powered vehicle and transportation management technology for clients managing fleets of on-demand cars, shuttles and buses, was recently approached by the Boston Medical Center (BMC) for help building a platform to automate patient intake and bed assignments for the homeless during COVID-19.
As Alex Wallar, Routable AI’s CTO, described the ensuing project, “Our team really wanted to help make a difference during this difficult and stressful time and spent time thinking of ways we could apply our technology to help optimize aspects of the healthcare industry. In particular, we believe it's important to help the healthcare workers and first responders on the front line, as well as at-risk populations who cannot fend for themselves."
Following the call from the BMC, it took Routable AI just four days to build and deploy a bed management system for BMC, using their existing AI infrastructure, and they did it for free.
As Wallar sees the challenge, “(h)omeless people are among the most vulnerable to illnesses, as many aspects of their lifestyle make it challenging to maintain social distancing and practice good hygiene. With COVID-19, this population has the potential to be a high-spread carrier, particularly when homeless patients in different risk groups are all treated in the same facility. . . . These different patients cannot be in the same place and must be carefully separated, a daunting task for healthcare workers already swamped with case management and treatment of the virus.”
The system Wallar’s team developed keeps track of every bed in each facility used within Boston Health Care for the Homeless program’s network. “Each bed has a set of labels describing certain characteristics and amenities of the facility that will align with a patient’s condition or preferences to match them to the most appropriate facility. Examples of labels include ‘known exposure,’ or ‘private bathroom access.’ With the press of a button, the system can automatically decide which patient to send to which facility and, further, which specific bed the patient should be allocated to.”
According to Wallar, “this optimization saves healthcare workers precious time during intake by taking into account patient characteristics and condition as well as available beds at facilities nearby. We can even extend this system in the future by incorporating our vehicle routing technology to manage a fleet of ambulances that could be automatically dispatched to transport patients to the facility they are assigned to.”
He added that now that the adapted platform is up and running, his team wants to find other hospitals, homeless shelters and facilities that are managing patients during the pandemic and offer it to them as well.