Microsoft launches ‘Plasma Bot’ to help recruit donors to create COVID-19 treatment

As part of moves to create a treatment for COVID-19 patients, Microsoft is launching a self-screening tool for people to check whether they qualify to donate their plasma, a company blog post has revealed. The tool is a product of the company’s collaboration with a group called the CoVig-19 Plasma Alliance.

The sooner recovered COVID-19 patients donate convalescent plasma, according to the post, the sooner the Alliance may be able to start manufacturing a potential therapy and begin clinical trials. “These trials will determine if this therapy could treat patients who are at risk for serious complications from COVID-19,” it added

The COVID-19 Plasma Bot, The Verge reports, which Microsoft says it expects to make available through the web, social, and search channels, ask a series of questions to see if a user is able to donate plasma, including medications they are taking, allergies, and other medical conditions.

“At Microsoft, we conducted a careful (but rapid) assessment, including consultation not only with our own experts but also several external partners. This assessment involved gaining an understanding of the underlying science and potential medical benefits. We are now convinced that the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance has a real chance to save lives, at significant scale, and possibly much sooner than other approaches currently being developed,” Leaders of Microsoft’s Plasma Bot further revealed in a blog post.

Plasma Bot is patterned to conform with the model that Microsoft used for more than 1,300 COVID-19 chatbots being used around the world with the CDC Coronavirus Self-Checker.

According to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker, more than 70,000 Americans have recovered from COVID-19. Plasma donors will undergo further screening to verify that they’re eligible to participate in the Plasma Alliance project. The plasma donation procedure typically takes less than an hour. The process returns the donor’s blood cells to the bloodstream, taking out only the water plus the proteins that will be used for developing a potential therapy.

Partners in the CoVIg Plasma Alliance include Biotest, BPL, LFB and Octapharma along with CSL Behring and Takeda. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.