HSE and Agency for Strategic Initiatives analyzed international experience in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences using digital technologies.

<ul>
	<li>A new direction for the use of digital technologies was formed - CovidTech. Tracking and movement control systems have become one of the main tools to reduce morbidity.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Various medical applications have proven effective in prevention, early diagnosis and connecting users to local health services.</li>
	<li>As the virus spreads, the demand for cloud video conferencing and online training has skyrocketed.</li>
	<li>The crisis showed an overall maturity of the Russian IT sector, however now it is under the pressure caused by general economic downturn. The volume of sold products of the industry in January-March 2020 decreased by 8% compared to the same period last year (in actual prices) against an increase of 20% in the Q1 of 2019.</li>
</ul>

An overview of foreign practices in using digital technologies used to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences.

 Overview of foreign practices to bring the economy out of the crisis amid a pandemic: a new technological policy

HSE (Higher School of Economics)

covidtech

Report

Moscow was ranked first among European cities in the rating of innovations that help fight coronavirus. In addition, the capital took third place globally, ahead of Boston, London and Toronto.

 
 San Francisco and New York ranked first and second, respectively. The rating was compiled by the international analytical center StartupBlink.

 
 Analysts analized 160 solutions of Moscow in the fight against the pandemic, including computer vision algorithms based on artificial intelligence, cloud platforms that unite doctors, medical institutions, insurance companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers. They also noted the projects in the field of smart tourism, e-commerce and logistics, telecommuting, and online education.

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 <img alt="" data-openpopup="0"
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</div>
 
 StartupBlink
 

 
 In the previous ranking, Moscow <a href="https://coronavirus.startupblink.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">also entered</a> the top 3 in the ranking of innovations in the fight against coronavirus infection. Last year, there were 46 innovative solutions in the capital.

 
 <a href="https://t.me/ICT_Moscow/5272" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Original (in Russian)</a>

mos.ru

Moscow Ranked the Best European City for Innovations Against COVID-19

The Moscow Innovation Cluster has added a section on its online platform, which presents solutions developed by the finalists of technology competitions against COVID-19 for small, medium and large businesses, individuals, medical institutions, as well as the city administration.

 
 The business block presents six categories, including those for medical organizations, restaurants and educational institutions. The category “for a safe business environment” is represented by six projects, including:

<ul>
 <li>ViewApp, an application that allows for inspection, photo and video recording of various items of pledge, leasing, insurance;</li>
 <li>Facemetric, a set of solutions that use computer vision technologies to recognize people, their characteristics and emotions;</li>
 <li>SmartAirKey, a room access control system using digital keys or RFID cards;</li>
 <li>Checkme, a personal consultant and clinic booking service;</li>
 <li>Climate Guard, a service for monitoring the indoor climate.</li>
</ul>

 
 In total, the section currently contains 36 projects. Some of them are presented in several categories at once.

<hr />
 
 Product cards

 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/viewapp/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">ViewApp</a>, <a href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/facemetric/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Facemetric</a>, <a href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/smartairkey/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">SmartAirKey</a>, <a href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/checkme/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Checkme</a>, <a href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/climate-guard/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Climate Guard</a>

<hr />
 
 Earlier, Moscow <a href="https://www.comnews.ru/content/212989/2021-02-08/2021-w06/moskva-stala-tretey-mire-anti-covid-innovaciyam" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">was ranked</a> third among the cities in the world in the Coronavirus Innovation Map ranking, which presents the number and quality of innovative solutions against COVID-19.

 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/news/moskovskii-innovatsionnyi-klaster-predstavil-antikovidnye-razrabotki-finalistov-tekhnologicheskikh-konkursov/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Original (in Russian)</a>

Moscow Innovation Cluster Presents Anti-Covid Solutions from Technological Competition Finalists

Moscow Government has published a list of the best AI solutions that has been used in the city’s clinics and hospitals.

 
 For July 2021, in the field of CT for COVID, the first place was taken by the CVL service from CVisionLab, while the second was taken by the Gamma Multivox Covirus from Gammamed Soft. Intelligent Radiology Assistant from Ira Labs was named the third-best.

 
 In the direction of RG/FLG (detection of lung pathologies) for the same period, the best service was Celsus from the company Medical Visual Systems. The second and third places were taken by Care Mentor AI and the program for automated analysis of digital fluorograms from FtisisBioMed, respectively. In total, 19 services were analyzed within the framework of the rating.

<hr />
 
 Product cards

 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/gamma-multivox-covirus/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Multivox</a>, <a href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/care-mentor-ai/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Care Mentor AI</a>

<hr />
 
 Comparison of AI services is carried out by calculating for each of them the final score for the reporting period according to four parameters, including the time of diagnosis and the minimum diagnostic accuracy of the study. The rating was compiled by experts from the Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine on the basis of the solutions used in the Moscow experiment on AI in medicine.

 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/projects/ai/news/1839/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Original (in Russian)</a>

Moscow Names Top AI Services Used in the City's Healthcare System

Moscow entered the top 3 cities in the world for the implementation of innovations against COVID-19, which was compiled by the international think tank StartupBlink. Mayor of the city Sergei Sobyanin announced this in his blog.

 
 The map contains more than 1,300 innovations from 100 cities in 40 countries for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infection. 46 of them are innovative solutions from Moscow. In particular, Foxford and Uchi.ru online schools, the self-isolation index and service for delivering COVID-19 tests by Yandex, telemedicine platforms, digital passes with QR codes, diagnostic systems, artificial intelligence used to recognize pneumonia.

 
 Moscow lost only to two cities - San Francisco and New York, leaving behind such cities as Boston, Toronto, Seoul, London and others. 

 
 <a href="https://coronavirus.startupblink.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">StartupBlink Rating</a> 

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 <img alt="" data-openpopup="0"
 src="https://ict.moscow/static/1200x/0c7b2cc8-c6a0-51fb-be12-1e9c8e3bed1a.png">
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 <a href="https://ict.moscow/news/startupblink-moskva-voshla-v-top-3-gorodov-mira-po-vnedreniiu-innovatsii-protiv-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Original (in Russian)</a>

sobyanin.ru

StartupBlink: Moscow entered the top 3 cities in the world for the implementation of innovations against COVID-19

Russian engineers from ID East, together with doctors from City Clinical Hospital No. 40 (infectious diseases hospital in Kommunarka), have developed <a href="https://ict.moscow/en/card/respiro/" target="_blank">Respiro</a> acoustic screening system for respiratory diseases, which uses AI and machine learning to identify COVID-19 infection by the patient’s coughing.

 
 The coughing is recorded on the microphone of a smartphone or a computer, after which the neural network analyzes the sound from the spectrogram and gives the result. Unlike the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which gives a false negative result in 30-40% of cases, Respiro’s accuracy is more than 90% and the system is effective even in asymptomatic cases, the developers say. AI algorithms have been trained on audio recordings of coughing of more than 10,000 patients infected with COVID-19.

 
 According to the chief physician of the medical institution <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006679967481" target="_blank">Denis Protsenko</a>, Respiro has to determine the disease and identify the need for hospitalization of the patient in the inpatient facility. Since the hospitalization itself is carried out without indications, there is a risk of nosocomial infection for patients. To date, a web service and a mobile application have been developed, they are currently in open testing. The solution will be launched in the second quarter of this year.

 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/news/v-moskve-razrabotali-skrining-zabolevanii-sposobnyi-opredeliat-covid-19-pri-pomoshchi-ii/" target="_blank">Original (in Russian)</a>

VC.ru

Disease screening system for detecting COVID-19 using AI has been developed in Moscow

overview-of-foreign-practices-to-bring-the-economy-out-of-the-crisis-amid-a-pandemic-a-new-technological-policy

An analysis of world’s smart-city solutions.

DIT Analytics

smartcity

world_experience

medicine

ecology

Monitoring of international smart practices in the first half of 2021

Research

Researchers from HSE University conducted a study of 15 of the world’s largest cities in Europe, Asia, and North America that assessed the cities’ labour market activity, post-quarantine economic recoveries, and the extent to which their digital infrastructures were prepared for the crisis.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>In the final ranking of economic policy effectiveness, Moscow took third place (64 points), behind only Seoul (75 points) and Shanghai (68 points). St. Petersburg took seventh place (55 points). The cities that performed most poorly in the assessment were London (39 points), Berlin (38 points), and Montreal (27 points).</li>
	<li>The researchers note that Moscow, along with Seoul, Shanghai, and Singapore, is among the cities that pursued the most effective and balanced economic policies during the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the number of coronavirus cases in Asian cities was several times lower than in Moscow, and the peak of the epidemic occurred one to two months earlier.</li>
	<li>The ranking assessed cities with regard to three main factors: the quality of the labour market (weighted at 40% in the overall ranking), the economic recovery after quarantine restrictions were lifted (30%), and the extent to which a city’s digital infrastructure was prepared for the crisis (30%).</li>
	<li>The researchers note that despite Moscow’s relatively high number of COVID-19 cases and its long-lasting quarantine measures, the city managed to maintain a stable labour market thanks to measures taken to support business and employment. The unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2020 was only 2%, which was the lowest among cities in the world with a population of over 10 million people.</li>
</ul>

The study showed that Seoul and Shanghai, followed by Moscow, dealt with the crisis most effectively. Singapore and Stockholm ranked 4th and 5th, respectively.

smartcitymoscow

World Cities: Effectiveness of Economic Policy Measures during the Corona Crisis

Rating

PwC experts highlight a number of common technology sustainability challenges businesses face due to COVID-19:

<ul>
	<li>IT specialists. Companies depend on key staff and specific IT practices. Supporting certain technology segments or market sectors that require additional resources can be difficult due to staff age or lack of specialists.</li>
	<li>Work of IT services. Entrepreneurs must ensure the sustainable delivery of IT services in context of disruption and fragmentation. It is important to analyze how well a service desk can handle the increase in the number of remote workers.</li>
	<li>IT supply chain. Delays and non-fulfillment of orders for equipment and services by external parties can have a significant impact on the business. An imbalance between supply and demand for some items (eg laptops, 4G modems) may affect the viability of the disaster recovery plan.</li>
	<li>IT resource management. Leaders must be prepared for changes in customer behavior: this concerns the growing demand from employees for remote access solutions and from customers for digital services, many of which are transferring to remote mode due to self-isolation.</li>
	<li>IT change management. The crisis can cause unplanned re-prioritization of change projects and delays in commissioning. In addition, the perception of some dangers can be distorted, resulting in an increased number of serious incidents and urgent changes.</li>
	<li>IT systems&nbsp;disaster recovery and IT risks. Against the background of increased risk, an importance of restoring IT systems is growing. There may be a lack of technology controls, or they may not be suitable for long-term changes in working methods.</li>
</ul>

PwC experts highlight key technology sustainability challenges businesses face due to COVID-19.

COVID-19. Ensuring technological sustainability

GenerationS, corporate accelerator by RVC (state fund of funds and a development institution in the Russian venture capital market), presented an analytical report on the current situation in the world and its impact on the innovation activity of companies and the whole ecosystem, not only in Russia, but worldwide.

GenerationS analyzed the pandemic impact on various economic sectors based on open, leading industry data sources, analytical reports and international indices. The format of spot surveys of corporations, representatives of startup development infrastructure, governmental and non-governmental agencies around the world had been used to obtain information.

The report includes interviews and comments, as well as mechanisms for adapting innovative processes in the context of the pandemic in some of the largest Russian and international corporations - partners of GenerationS. It presents various technologies and solutions that can be implemented to ensure the effective operation of business processes in companies in the current realities.

Report includes:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>Map of COVID-19's influence on major industries</li>
	<li>Examples of technologies to fight COVID-19 related to GenerationS accelerators as well as other RVC projects.</li>
</ul>

Overview of foreign practices to bring the economy out of the crisis amid a pandemic: a new technological policy

Monitoring of international smart practices in the first half of 2021

World Cities: Effectiveness of Economic Policy Measures during the Corona Crisis

COVID-19. Ensuring technological sustainability

Adapting to a new innovation reality: trends, technologies, perspectives