Ericsson, Telia, and Sahlgrenska University Hospital use AI to help improve COVID-19 planning

March 11, 2021

In an effort to improve COVID-19 pandemic response, Ericsson, Telia, and Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden are testing the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create insight models for planning and prediction of healthcare demands and resources

With hospital and healthcare resources stretched to the limit, planning has become more important, and more difficult than under normal circumstances. While the pandemic shown that the needs of hospitals can be hard to predict, it has also highlighted how resilient networks and mobile data can help cope with these challenges.

Ericsson, Telia, and Sahlgrenska University Hospital (SU) are now collaborating together to create and refine insight models for planning and predicting healthcare resources and demands.

The research innovation project, started in September 2020, combines advanced analysis and AI models, along with healthcare information, to more effectively plan healthcare resources. The project uses data supplied by Telia Crowd Insights, which is irreversibly anonymized and aggregated from Telia’s Swedish mobile network.

Ericsson has extensive knowledge of AI and telecom networks and by combining this competence with Telia’s Crowd Insights data and SU’s healthcare expertise and real-time experience with COVID-19 it is possible to more effectively plan and predicting healthcare resources.

For example, by using this data, it becomes possible to improve estimations of how many COVID-19 patients will be admitted to a hospital. As part of this project, SU is also collaborating with Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden to help improve COVID-19 planning.

Peter Laurin, Head of Managed Services, Ericsson, says “Ericsson has a long-standing commitment to Technology for Good. We are now extending this to using our AI tools and expertise to help relieve the unprecedented challenges presented by Covid-19. Our collaboration with Telia and Sahlgrenska University Hospital proves the value that data together with technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can bring to healthcare and society”.