The IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate has opened a national coronavirus information center, the purpose of which is to help improve the decision making process for stopping the rate of infection.
The move, which was spearheaded by the Military Intelligence Directorate's Research Division and Unit 8200, is aimed at utilizing the intelligence branch's unique ability to gather the information compiled in Israel and across the globe and use artificial intelligence and machine learning to allow the Health Ministry and IDF Home Front Command to make better decisions in real-time.
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The information center consists of three branches – Israel, the Middle East and the world – which gather all the existing data about the coronavirus: from official government statistics to academic research, even fake news. The figures that have been compiled thus far, for example, facilitated the transition from three testing swabs to one, and understanding that the main outbreak centers were synagogues, which led to the decision to shut them down and end public prayer services. Additional information, which is based on global morbidity statistics, helped fine tune and tailor the directives given to the different populations in Israel.
Meanwhile, Military Intelligence's technological unit has created an information network to help the Health Ministry manage the testing process more efficiently. Apparently, up until now the information was managed and stored in a variety of ways by different bodies – hospitals, labs, Magen David Adom, National Health Funds and the Health Ministry – which muddled the full picture and hampered the decision making process.
The network developed by Military Intelligence includes all the information that exists in Israel – from the infected individual to the national statistics. The network is similar to the one used by MI to gather information in its regular capacity, and is meant to ensure that every piece of information is collected and analyzed, and that no piece of critical information falls between the chairs. The database that is now growing should allow the Health Ministry to hit its target of 15,000 tests per day, and at the same time an application was developed to help the IDF's Medical Corps manage the testing process efficiently.
MI is also involved in a series of other initiatives – spearheaded by the Special Operations Division – among them converting basic ventilators to mechanical ventilators. At the beginning of next week, Sheba Medical Center will conduct a test on the ventilation system that has been developed. It's success will put to use the thousands of ventilators in the country already and spare Israel the need to compete with other countries desperately trying to buy the expensive machines abroad.
Another initiative aims to convert ambulances to vehicles specially designed to move coronavirus patients without endangering the driver. This is being accomplished with special armor placed in the front of the vehicle. In the first phase of the project, which is already underway, 25 MDA ambulances and Home Front Command vehicles will be fitted with the special protection. Another project – to convert commercial vehicles into sample collection vehicles – will increase the mobility of the medical teams and the pace they can conduct tests across the country.
