Part of the challenge in controlling the coronavirus pandemic is in identifying and isolating infected people quickly – not particularly easy when COVID-19 symptoms aren’t always noticeable, especially early on. Now scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence model that can detect the virus from a simple forced cough.

Evidence shows that the AI can spot differences in coughing that can’t be heard with the human ear, and if the detection system can be incorporated into a device like a smartphone, the research team thinks it could become a useful early screening tool.

The work builds on research that was already happening into Alzheimer’s detection through coughing and talking. Once the pandemic started to spread, the team turned its attention to COVID-19 instead, tapping into what had already been learned about how disease can cause very small changes to speech and the other noises we make.

田村憲久厚生労働相は30日午前の閣議後の記者会見で「患者が普段からかかっている『かかりつけ医』が診療する場合にオンライン診療の初診を解禁する」と述べた。河野太郎規制改革相と平井卓也デジタル改革相と合意した。かかりつけ医の詳細な要件や対象疾患などは今後詰める。

オンライン診療は初診は対面が原則で、対象疾患も主に生活習慣病などに絞っている。新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大で、政府は特例的・時限的な措置として4月、初診も全面的に容認し対象疾患の縛りも無くした。

菅義偉首相はオンライン診療の恒久化を指示しており、田村氏、河野氏、平井氏の3閣僚で協議。8日に「安全性と信頼性をベースに初診も含め原則、解禁する」と合意していた。

Throughout the pandemic, healthcare workers have seen more than just the lungs affected by COVID-19. Doctors have reported neurological complications including stroke, headache and seizures, but the information is limited to a number of individual reports that are not reflective of a larger population.

Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh have gathered more than 80 studies, reviewed the data, and identified commonalities that are helping to paint a broader picture of how COVID-19 affects the brain.

The findings, published in Seizure: European Journal of Epilepsy, focused on electroencephalogram (EEG) abnormalities of the brain. EEG is a test used to evaluate the electrical activity in the brain. Researchers found that about one-third of patients who were given an EEG had abnormal neuroimaging localized in the frontal lobe of the brain.

Only a handful of people the watch flagged actually had a heart problem

The heart monitoring feature on the Apple Watch may lead to unnecessary health care visits, according to a new study published this week. Only around 10 percent of people who saw a doctor at the Mayo Clinic after noticing an abnormal pulse reading on their watch were eventually diagnosed with a cardiac condition.

The finding shows that at-home health monitoring devices can lead to over-utilization of the health care system, said study author Heather Heaton, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, in an email to The Verge. That may be expensive for patients and for the system as a whole, and it may take up doctor and patient time unnecessarily.