The Covid-19 epidemic has seen a wide range of private, corporate and national government initiatives springing up to address shortfalls in
protective equipment (e.g. facemasks), medical devices (e.g. ventilators), knowledge and time.
However, so far, there is no centralized platform to channel these initiatives to the public entities that need them. Instead, one finds
out about the constantly changing needs of public health authorities through newspapers, social media, personal or professional connections,
and with further delay tries to find the needed collaborators through a combination of these channels.
The Platform
We propose to create a platform, Crisis XC, to match supply and demand in times of crisis. It will allow authenticated users (e.g. health authorities, hospitals)
to express their needs for medical supplies, such as: facemasks, respirators, ventilators, gloves; to medical technologies,
such as: rapid tests, vaccines, as well as other services, such as: personnel or AI technologies to halt the spread of
rumors on social media. On the other end (supply-side), private individuals, firms, research entities, NGOs, etc., can sign up to offer
their knowledge, materials, technology, or resources. We are also considering using epidemic modeling and machine learning techniques
to identify priorities and predict the need for medical supplies.
CrisisXC will allow the more efficient allocation of resources that are made available due to a shock on employment and production of certain goods
to a specialized production capacity. Additionally, this platform is expected to also mitigate the negative impacts on employment by reallocating resources
towards urgently needed production systems.
