Story by Victor Seow
Pix by Law Suun Ting
A MEMORANDUM of Understanding (MoU) was reached on Dec 20 between the state government and AIME Inc. for the implementation of an innovative dengue dynamic surveillance system which relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to predict geo-locations and timing of the next dengue outbreak.
AIME, which stands for Artificial Intelligence for Medical Epidemiology, was represented by its founder and president Rainier Mallol while State Secretary Datuk Seri Farizan Darus signed the MoU on behalf of the state government.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who witnessed the ceremony, was pleased to note that it will be a pioneer effort by his administration which involves the use of state-of-the-art technology to combat the dengue menace in Penang which had claimed several lives in recent years.
“The state government will fully cover the cost for a year at RM423,333.33. This is a pioneer effort implemented in Malaysia which relies on the latest technology to reduce the number of dengue cases and save lives,” he said.
“The game-changing surveillance system which the state government has named CAT or Crush Aedes Totally resorts to the use of an advanced model that incorporates artificial intelligence (AI), based on big data analytics and epidemiological research,” the chief minister added.
Also present were exco member for Agriculture & Agro-Based Industry, Rural Development and Health Dr. Afif Bahardin, deputy director of the State Health Department Dr Mohamad Sabri Othman and AIME Healthcare Sdn Bhd managing director Dr Helmi Zakariah.
“Using the AIME platform, we are expecting to achieve an amazingly high level of accurate prediction up to 84%. This will enable us to know exactly where the outbreak is likely to occur up to 3 months ahead,” Dr Afif noted.