Universal Medicine

Trisha Banerjee The risk of mortality from COVID-19 is higher in Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic (BAME) people, which is confirmed by the Public Health England review. Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Caribbean and other communities of Asian and Black ethnicity have a 10% - 50% higher risk of death compared to those who are white British. It was found that people from Bangladeshi ethnicity are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 compared to white British people. Moreover, in healthcare, a majority of the doctors that have tragically died from COVID-19 have been from BAME backgrounds. 33% of ICU patients are from BAME backgrounds, whereas BAME people only make up 14% of the population of England and Wales. There have been many explanations proposed to explain the disproportionate effect on BAME people.  From a scientific perspective, genetic factors predispose people of BAME backgrounds to COVID-19. Data from the National Diabetes Audit shows that there is a higher prevalence of Type...

Trisha Banerjee Recent developments in technology have enabled scientists and researchers around the world to overcome geographical boundaries in order to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology is playing a remarkable role in healthcare to deal with the threat that COVID-19 imposes upon humanity. Evolving technology such as Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing, Contact-tracing and Robotics are playing a key part in the prevention of the spread of this infectious virus. Artificial Intelligence (AI) uses machine learning to mimic human intelligence. AI is being employed to diagnose COVID-19 rapidly using CT scans. AI systems that are currently being used in Iran take a mere 20 seconds to diagnose a patient using their CT scan results, whereas it would take a human 15 minutes for this diagnosis. In addition, Google’s DeepMind technology has used AI systems to analyse the structure of proteins associated with COVID-19. Understanding the 3D shape of the viral proteins can provide a...