The Impact of Smart Communities on Healthcare

Up until now, Smart City technology has been developed in accordance to specific needs, structures, budgets and possibilities. From smart data collection, to traffic optimisation, garbage collection and an increased awareness for sustainable solutions, smart community developments have made significant contributions to the wellbeing of their citizens.

Ever since entering the Covid crisis, these smart urbanisation solutions have seen a notable boost, with some of these tech developments being used to help tackle the pandemic and curb its negative effects. In healthcare, for instance, we’ve seen many inspiring examples. In South Korea, a tool to analyse urban data was used by epidemiological investigators to trace transmission paths for COVID and, within one week, confirmed cases dropped from 900 to 90 per day. Another initiative in Singapore brought to light an app called TraceTogether, which helped identify those who’d had contact with infected individuals. In the US, an Amazon-partnered initiative launched a $200 million telehealth network to help residents access health resources and connect with care providers during the Coronavirus pandemic, using a community of just 5,000 in Maryland as its testing ground.

Another recent example that has really caught my eye, however, is in the smart city of Varanasi (India), where city officials have greenlit a trial run to deliver Covid medicines by drones to its citizens.

This is not the first initiative of its kind in India, where the second Covid wave is having devastating effects on the population. Just recently, ISRO (the Indian Space Research Organisation) also used drones to deliver medicines, food and disinfectants in the island of Sriharikota.

While these initiatives are still in the trial phase, meaning that it will take time to expand them across significant parts of the population, they also give us a glimpse into how smart communities can have a major positive impact on healthcare systems and simplify the public’s access to medical services. Throughout the ongoing pandemic, we’ve already seen such initiatives make a huge difference. We need to use these learning curves to further optimise our cities, making them better prepared to face any future crisis.