Critical Frontier: Leveraging Technology to Combat COVID-19

"Digital tools and strategies have become crucial in this effort."

From the World Economic Forum (WEF), this compendium seeks to provide a picture of the diverse uses of technology for the COVID-19 response and to encourage actors around the world to replicate the efforts made elsewhere.  

The document includes 232 use cases across 7 categories (with hyperlinked examples throughout):

1. Information management: Efforts that involve sharing, safeguarding, and promoting factual information in the fight against the pandemic. Example use cases: advanced screening tools that help the public gather additional information, and message management efforts in conjunction with governments and institutions around the world
2. Detection and containment: Efforts that support early detection of the virus and containment of the spread through non-pharmaceutical intervention. Example use case: mobile-based contact tracing applications
3. Healthcare provider enablement: Efforts that supply frontline healthcare workers with the tools, technology, and capabilities they need to fight the virus. Example use cases: artificial intelligence (AI) technology, chatbots, and remote diagnosis
4. Treatment acceleration: Efforts that support businesses and organisations working on drug and vaccine discovery through big data and health research. Example use case: open datasets and open access to scholarly articles
5. Economic resilience: Efforts that support local and global commerce. Example use case: distance learning platforms for isolated youth
6. Social cohesion: Efforts that foster communication and cohesion between and among individuals, corporations, and institutions. Example use cases: hackathons that address the mental health impact of social isolation, and platforms that allow communities to connect and help each other
7. Cybersecurity: Efforts that help mitigate the increased risk of cybercrime due to employees and individuals spending more time online. Example use cases: technology solutions to protect networks and capacity-building tools, and materials to educate users on best practices.

The compendium identifies key gaps in several categories - notably, for tools that foster communication and cohesion. Potential applications include addressing employee well-being, curbing home violence, and building a sense of community by facilitating neighbourhood support initiatives.

While the use cases featured largely represent offerings from the technology and communications industry, they include many solutions from the public sector, academia, and civil society as well, demonstrating that effective technology applications can come from a variety of actors.

Also notable is that only one-third of solutions were developed jointly by several companies or as part of a public-private partnership, suggesting that standardisation and interoperability challenges lie ahead. Many solutions are coming from China, where companies are collaborating with the government to push the boundaries of technology.

The entries in the compendium cover 41 countries and all major regions of the world. However, only 19 solutions are developed in or targeted specifically at Africa, Oceania, or Latin America, compared to 69, 54, and 20 for Asia, North America, or Europe, respectively. While the media scan was limited to English-language materials only and could also be influenced by the physical location of leading technology firms in North America and Asia, this observation nonetheless raises the question of equal access across the globe to technology tools and services to fight COVID-19, which is worth further exploration, according to the WEF.

Note: This version is an update/expansion of the Early Compendium of Technology Responses to COVID-19 [PDF], published in April 2020.