Neura has announced the adoption of ViruScore COVID-19 predictive testing solution, according to a press release from the company. Neura’s Human Behavioral Intelligence Platform is an AI-based approach to be utilized in the field, with HY Laboratories, the main provider of COVID-19 tests solutions in Israel, and a global HMO using it to grade testing samples to enable more efficient test pooling.
Neura transforms vast amounts of anonymized sensory data from millions of mobile devices using AI and machine learning into actionable insights such as Social Distancing Index, Human Encounter Rate, crowd-gathering patterns and Super-Spreader mobility patterns. These actionable insights are subsequently utilized by health organizations, municipalities, and governments to predict and contain the spread of COVID-19. As part of Neura’s newest offering, these same COVID-19 insights are fused with pandemic data to create a risk score. The score is employed by HMOs and labs to grade the probability of a positive or negative result on a four-level scale ranging from “highest probability” to “lowest probability."
In Neura’s study with HY Laboratories, the Neura ViruScore solution achieved 98 percent accuracy in test prediction across a sample size of 1,000 tests. As a result, Neura was able to create a population sample with 2 percent positive infection rate, producing an optimal environment for pool testing and enabling the HMO to increase capacity by 6X.
Three out of four models did not assign batches with even a single positive test to its lowest probability classification and the fourth assigned only a single positive test. Those results point to Neura’s human behavior driven-based testing approach playing a pivotal role in breaking infectious chains faster, and potentially saving millions of dollars by reducing the number of tests required.
“Neura’s solution is a significant leap forward for the deployment of behavioral-intelligence tech in the fight against COVID-19” said Neura’s CEO, Amit Hammer. “Being able to identify high- and low-risk groups, future outbreaks, and behavioral Super-Spreaders is crucial to government efforts to fight the virus. With the recent FDA approval of COVID-19 test pooling, Neura’s insights will go even further in helping to slow and break down the chain of infection.”
“Now we do not look only at the analytical and clinical utility of testing, but at the entire workflow and its implications on a much broader scale. Neura brings an out-of-the-box approach and new possibilities for sample managing, achieving a powerful enhancement of the test pooling process,” said Tsofnat Cohen Lubetzky, Head of Business Development at Hylabs. “By leveraging Neura’s ViruScore solution, we are able to pool tests far more effectively, delivering much faster results, while helping to conserve supplies of vital testing kits, it has been an absolute and unequivocal breakthrough.”
