Reduce Risk: Post-COVID Analytics Platform for Returning to Work
AI-assisted risk management for people returning to work.
Project Overview
Updated March 31, 2023
The Problem
The COVID-19 pandemic not only has put the health of Canadians at risk but has also harmed the long-term health of our country’s economy.
Until now, there has been no accurate method for determining whether it is safe for an employee to return to work. Although physical distancing and other safety requirements can protect people, what’s needed is a tool that can rapidly assess each worker’s risk of contracting the virus, the likely severity of the infection and the risk of post-infection problems.
How We Are Solving It
By collecting data in one place, the Reduce Risk analytics platform can create models for the disease and quickly perform a risk assessment for people who want to return to work. Molecular You is leading the project team, which includes AltaML, Roche Canada, Municipality of Brooks, Alberta, WorkSafeBC, Alberta Blue Cross and MRM Proteomics.
The platform includes a safe and secure central data warehouse with one of the largest sets of high-dimensional COVID-19 patient data available. The information includes the individual’s phenotype, type of blood protein, metabolite, environmental exposures levels and genetic variants. The platform also uses artificial intelligence and machine learning tools that can accelerate analysis and generate new knowledge.
This goal is to better understand why some people are at high risk for severe progression of the disease and how the body responds to COVID-19. Mathematical models and predictive algorithms will forecast underlying health risks and emerging health issues in patients, helping to predict long-term COVID-19 complications.
The platform incorporates a blockchain-based privacy system, which will allow employees to inform their employers of their ability to return to work without revealing any details of their conditions.
Above all, the project provides a cost-effective COVID-19 disease risk assessment, enabling employers and employees to be better prepared to return safely to the workplace.
The Result
This project represented a major advancement in the ability to understand and address COVID-19 comorbidities from a molecular level. Based on a successful study engaging over 1,600 Canadians and gathering more than 200 molecular datasets, the project team was able to generate a biosignature of COVID-19 recovery. The platform has accelerated the ability to query complex datasets and generate biosignatures and is already planned for application to COVID-19 recovery, central nervous system disorder and cancer use cases.
