The future of sleep-disordered breathing: A public health crisis

Abstract

The growing importance of digital technology as an enabler of innovations in health care is highlighted in the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, which understandably is the focus of current global public health concerns. By combining information from people's smart phones, face‐recognizing cameras and self‐reported body temperature, machine learning algorithms have enabled the Chinese government to quickly identify suspected COVID‐19 carriers and contacts. Information has been efficiently and quickly disseminated through mobile apps such as Tencent Maps and WeChat which alert people when near infected patients. While individual privacy has clearly been sidelined during the public health crisis, the technology has demonstrated how responsive and effective digital monitoring devices and machine learning algorithms can be. A lasting and beneficial outcome from the COVID‐19 crisis may be a fast‐tracking of smart digital analytics for disease management.