Aid against the spread of the coronavirus and its treatment is pouring in by the day. Medical authorities are working tooth and nail to develop a cure and Microsoft’s new “Plasmabot” might just speed up the process.
The software giant is collaborating with a consortium of pharmaceutical companies to recruit people that have recovered from the virus and encourage them to donate their blood plasma to help develop a treatment.
Known as Plasmabot, this chat bot will survey people to determine if they’re suitable candidates for plasma donation. It will then redirect them to a local donation website and will inform them of the procedure as well.
Using convalescent plasma is a method of producing a treatment, since a patient who has recovered from a virus produces antibodies to fight the disease that stay in the blood for months. Hence, the recovered host’s blood plasma can be used to develop treatment for others.
Microsoft’s head of research Peter Lee has said that the company is planning to maximize plasma recruits as cases in different regions are hitting peak numbers or are close to hitting peak numbers. Project Plasmabot kicked off last month and it counts the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as one of its advisers. The chatbot is set to roll out in a week from now.
