Why facial recognition is essential for health care now

Investment in the health care segment has skyrocketed after COVID-19, as authorities rushed to ensure hospitals and other facilities were equipped to deal with the demand. Unfortunately, such initiatives were not enough in many places. Despite efforts to increase the numbers of hospital beds and intensive care units, meeting demand has been a challenge.
 
There were several reasons for this. For some, it was simply the lack of resources. For others, lack of time. But a common issue seen across the world was the difficulty in deciding what technologies could be used best to take control over the situation.
 
Entering the third (or fourth?) year of the pandemic but clearly still not out of it, authorities have begun thinking of using solutions that would allow them to manage health care facilities better so that the staff and resources are in the best shape to serve patients. This is where facial recognition becomes relevant.

6 ways facial recognition helps in health care

Speaking to asmag.com recently, Dean Nicolls, Chief Marketing Officer of Oosto, explained that there are a number of ways where facial recognition can play an essential role in protecting medical clinics and hospitals.

1. Contact tracing

Tracing people who have come in contact with an infected person is necessary to control the spread of the disease. But contact tracing is not easy as people don't always remember where they have been to and who they have encountered. Integrated with the surveillance systems, facial recognition technology can help health care authorities deal with this issue.
 
"The technology also retraces people's footsteps, helping to identify where they've been, for how long, with whom, and when," Nicolls said. "The ability to perform this type of contact tracing can help enforce quarantine efforts remotely."

2. Watchlist alerting

Facial recognition solutions can also rapidly track known carriers and potential exposures to protect staff, patients, and the community. Get real-time notifications when a known carrier or known threat enters a facility to ensure staff and other patients are adequately informed and protected.

The arrival of COVID-19 has diverted everyone's attention from the usual security concerns. But that doesn't mean those concerns don't exist anymore. Health care facilities must continue to remain vigilant against intruders to ensure that people and assets are safe.

3. Touchless access control

Access control is probably the biggest user of facial recognition technology now. It allows an efficient touchless experience, in line with the health care guidelines.
 
"Facial recognition systems help to accelerate and safeguard onsite admission, limit surface contact and crowding in high-traffic areas, and allow employees to seamlessly unlock doors, turnstiles, or other entry points with their face - without requiring the removal of masks," Nicolls said.

4. Mask detection

Although wearing masks is one of the best ways to deal with the spread of COVID-19, many people are not able to incorporate this behavioral change. Sometimes people even forget that the mask should cover their nose and mouth, letting it slide down and lowering its efficiency. A facial recognition system can alert these people and authorities if needed.
 
"Oosto's Vision AI can recognize when people enter a medical facility are not wearing a face mask and can be configured to send an alert when it sees that someone is not wearing a mask at all," Nicolls explained.

5. Internal zone control

Access control is required within the premises as well. Some staff or customers may not be authorized to enter specific locations within a facility. With facial recognition solutions, authorities can ensure that entry and exit permissions are granted to the right people.
 
"Prevent unauthorized access to secure locations (e.g., ICU, pharmacy, maternity ward, operating rooms), quickly identify and segment new patients, and track their location in real-time," Nicolls said. "Ensure that only authorized people are in treatment areas and hasten recovery of patients by eliminating cross-contamination."

6. Investigations 

If a crime happens at a hospital, facial recognition can potentially help. Hospital staff can easily manage and investigate cases by searching through hours of offline video footage for persons of interest in a matter of seconds.
 
This enables them to pinpoint all appearances of subjects or unknown individuals in offline video footage uploaded to the system. Once uploaded, operators can utilize all existing search capabilities to cross-reference between live channels and uploaded cases.

Conclusion

Facial recognition can help the health care vertical achieve better situational awareness and control to ensure security and safety. As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc around the world, using the most advanced and suitable tech is necessary. Security companies have helped businesses deal with the pandemic from its early days. With better algorithms and more effective solutions, they can continue to do this until the world recovers from COVID-19.