Roshan Pandey/ Samriddha Pyakurel

We live in a world of innovation, disruption and change. Healthcare practices around the world are rapidly evolving using the advanced technology leverage. They are destined to see a revolutionary change beyond recognition in the coming decade, with modern technology at the centre.
There is a less familiar story about COVID-19. While the unprecedented situation caused by this pandemic has posed many lethal challenges, we have also witnessed paradigm shifting technologies being developed and deployed across various parts of the world to detect, contain, and cure the illness. Robotics companies are making more robots and drones than ever, businesses, health and administrative systems are digitalising, new kinds of vaccines are coming up, and old ideas are moving into new realms of applications. New technologies are evolving and upgrading not only in health but even in education, transportation and services sectors. The crisis has triggered serious acceleration in adoption of new technologies swiftly pushing us into the future. There is an opportunity for technology to stay at the cutting edge.
In the past one year, we have witnessed healthcare technologies that have come straight out of a science fiction movie. What matters now is the rate at which we are able to embrace the cultural transformation to adapt-to and utilise them effectively.

Techceleration
Techceleration is pushing the world further, faster! AI-assisted diagnosis is helping rapid screening of a large number of cases. Video-consultations aka telemedicine, powered by high-tech ICT technologies like 5G have enabled remote consultations by experts, thereby reducing risk of infection for healthcare professionals. Multi-purpose robots are being used in hospitals and on the streets to disinfect and to distribute medical supplies, reducing workloads of thousands of medical workers and aiding contactless operations. Even autonomous drones, with thermal camera to detect the temperature of people through windows and doors in skyscrapers, were seen soaring the skies.
The streets of China witnessed glimpses of future when unmanned vehicles took over the streets to transport food and medical supplies during the 2020 lockdown. For something that was not categorised as anti-epidemic material, these robots proved particularly helpful in mass patient profiling, bio-security control and spatial management from the point of view of pandemic control. Most of these robots use new technologies like Advanced Digital Production (ADP) in the form of AI algorithms to constantly upgrade connectivity and performance. ADP technology has proved beneficial especially in detecting and containing the spread of the virus. A pilot scale trial was carried out in a hospital in Wuhan where robots performed patient profiling making use of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Patients wore bands that would communicate with the robots and relay information on temperature, heart rate and blood oxygen to the robots who would then relay it to an AI powered diagnosis system. Other robots provided patients with food, medicines and information, while some sprayed disinfectants all over the hospital floors and cleaned them- a perfect example of socially beneficial technology. The success of these robots has followed with rapid scale-up of tech companies dealing with robotics, ADP and IoT all across the world. Furthermore, preparations to quickly start pilot trials of unmanned taxis in Beijing are already underway.
Exemplary examples in techceleration were seen in the National Health Services (NHS) in the UK where a system to make video calls was effectively made within a weekend and then rolled-out to doctors across the country. This technology, called telemedicine, is defined as the use of electronic communications and software to monitor and treat patient in lieu of an in-person visit. A new form of telemedicine is being tested in the Silicon Valley. A coronavirus risk screening website, in collaboration with the state of California, has been developed, that triages people and directs eligible people to mobile testing sites by using existing health data platforms. Applications such as these have helped the government better track and manage the infected public streamlining their containment efforts.
Experts say that the technological journey the world has made in the past one year is equivalent of five normal years. This means technologically we have already marched on to the year 2025. Having said that, we should also ponder upon how much of an advantage have we as a country been able to take from this disruption in innovation?
Where does the problem lie in Nepal? Is it in the unfriendly business regulations for such electronic systems or have we just not got the hang of things that are around us?
What can be seen from the situation in Nepal is an utter lack of understanding of application and utilitarian value (and thereof lack of adoption) of some of these new technologies that have been developed (and/or scaled up) in the past year.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Now is the time most suited for a tech revolution in Nepal, too. Despite being in a state of emergency, our efforts have not become proactive. Our engineers and scientists have been developing technologies and hi-tech devices to combat methods but their actions too are grossly reactive.

Quintessential elements
The three quintessential elements for development and fostering of a technology based business include a technology developing infrastructure (basically research and academia), an absorbing mass to utilise the created resource, and a conducive business environment for development of the technology, what we say commercial market. Despite having poor educational infrastructure, we are still good on the resources front with many government and independent groups working on new technology development in Nepal. If efforts can be put in to sensitise people on the usage of tech and if more business-regulations are put forth, Nepal can also see significant changes soon.
The thread that binds all the success stories in the past year across the world is the public-private partnerships. Similar public-private partnerships in all services, construction and health sector can go a long way in elevating the state of technology in Nepal too. Many efforts in the public-private fronts have been initiated in the past in Nepal too. However, hereon our efforts must be channelised towards taking these initiatives to their intended logical ends.

(Associated with Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, Pandey is a PhD scholar at Pulchowk Campus under the Institute of Engineering while Pyakurel works for a private firm. roshanpandey2010@gmail.com)