ISLAMABAD: Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has recently approved the registration of the locally manufactured device, COVID-19 Rapid Artificial Intelligence Detection (COV-RAID) to detect the corona infection in suspected person’s lungs within a minute.
A DRAP official on said that the COV-RAID was a window-based software programme based on python using TensorFlow and Keras libraries.
The device developed by the National Electronics Complex of Pakistan would employ Convolutional Neural Networks to detect the presence of COVID-19 in suspected individuals, he added. He further said the purpose of registering this device was to identify suspected patients economically using X-Rays and the product was approved for the secondary detection of COVID-19 virus.
As per the certificate handed to COV-RAID, this registration, valid for a period of five years, would be subject to the conditions specified in the DRAP Act, 2012 and the rules made there-under.
Commenting on this, DRAP Chief Executive Officer, Dr Asim Rauf said that the device would significantly support the treatment of the coronavirus patients in Pakistan.
He added the device would soon be available throughout the country.
He said this technology was being used by only a few countries of the world, and Pakistan would start using this technology for the first time for the COVID-19 detection and treatment. The DRAP official said Pakistan would also export this device to other countries.
He said this was a great success for Pakistan that such an important device had been invented at a local level to diagnose not only the infection but also its quantity.
-DN Report
Dr Muattar Hanif
The author is Editor at Dental News Pakistan and can be reached at newsdesk@medicalnewsgroup.com.pk
