Now It’s Final: We Moved to Living in the Net
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Experts: The World has Advanced by 20 Years – in Only 2 Weeks
Over the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, organizations and businesses in Israel and around the world have been enforced to rapidly adjust to the changing reality, and the public has been obliged to change habits. However, it seems that the crisis has brought about growth, at least from the technological point of view. Is this a blessing or rather there is going to be a price tag for that?
Learn more about new technologies for emergency response – Attend i-HLS’ InnoTech Expo in Tel Aviv – Israel’s largest innovation, HLS, and cyber technologies expo – on November 18-19, 2020
Israeli agencies, e.g. government offices, which have been lagging behind for years with regards to the digital interaction with citizens, have managed, during the current crisis, to bypass all the bureaucratic hurdles that had characterized their operation so far, and supply more and more digitally-accessed, remote services, replacing the need to physically attend their offices.
The digital, simultaneous interaction of hundreds of thousands of people with the Israeli Employment Service and the National Social Security without getting near their branches could not have been possible without the accelerated online organization of these institutes.
The health funds in Israel, which were in the midst of a full-fledged process to provide digital accessibility and remote medicine, are surprisingly offering a growing selection of telemedicine services that can replace clinic visits during the current crisis. Maccabi Healthcare Services have recently launched their AI-based K Application – a chat service with an expert doctor based on the patient’s medical records. During recent months, Clalit Health Services have been offering remote home tests and remote diagnosis by a specialist doctor via their Tyto device. Leumit and Meuhedet health funds also offer video chats with the doctor instead of clinic visits.
Distance learning applications active for years at the academic and educational sectors can be an excellent learning tool and a communication channel between teachers and students, The Israeli education system is still awaiting the full application of distance learning, as the differences regarding teachers’ working conditions are settled.
Video chats, mainly through the Zoom application – the greatest hit during the coronavirus crisis – enable direct communication – social chats, business meetups and meetings, webinars, conferences, sports activities, etc., with the integration of presentations, files, videos. The successful application that started in the business sector and widened the scope to the education sector, as a pedagogic distance learning tool, has become a platform shared by millions of users, outnumbering other applications.
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Alongside these platforms, delivery companies are supplying a wide selection of products and services to the customer’s home, becoming the almost exclusive contact channel of the citizens.
Around the world, drones are used as an effective and secure tool for remotely controlling isolated coronavirus carriers without risking the law enforcement teams. They offer unmanned access to patients or suspected virus carriers, announcements, remote facial recognition of carriers out of isolation without permission, patrol, and more.
Although these developments seem positive, there are also concerns that the technological leap during the coronavirus crisis would have less positive consequences. Israel’s General Security Services have been operating technological tools in order to locate people that were near virus patients using methods that were so far implemented only for counter-terror warfare. An HLS expert said it will be very difficult to close this door after the crisis is over.
Learn more about new technologies for emergency response – Attend i-HLS’ InnoTech Expo in Tel Aviv – Israel’s largest innovation, HLS, and cyber technologies expo – on November 18-19, 2020 at Expo Tel Aviv, Pavilion 2.
