Video Interview platform Searchie.ai Steps Up To Help With The COVID-19 Crisis

Dubai-Based Video Interview platform Searchie.ai Steps Up To Help With The COVID-19 Crisis

Joining a group of startups that have become more agile in light of the COVID-19 crisis, Searchie follows advice from Bill Gates to prioritize testing in order to reduce the spread of the virus.

Searchie’s new solution - Mediscreen - allows everyone worried about their health complete a virtual interview remotely from their homes.

Dubai, UAE, 12 April 2020: Searchie, a Dubai-based artificial intelligence video recruitment platform, has repurposed its in-house developed technology to help doctors and medical staff cope with the COVID-19 crisis.

Searchie, founded by Sahiqa Bennett and Harvey Bennett in 2018, is the first company in the MENA region to use machine learning and video to predict people’s personality and match every candidate to a company based on competency, behaviour, values and needs.

Mediscreen, which was developed by the Searchie team in just 14 days after the COVID-19 outbreak, uses the same technology to solve the remote prioritization of patients through one way video screening.

It is expected to alleviate the stress on the medical community by making the pre-screening and prioritization of testing more seamless.

Harvey Bennett, co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Searchie, says: “We need to understand the real number of people infected by the virus, but not every country has the same number of tests available, so part of the challenge is understanding which people are high risk in order to prioritize them. This isn’t an online survey but a valuable tool for the doctors to diagnose since the prescreening helps doctors know who needs testing urgently. The solution was built in collaboration with doctors who are dealing with COVID-19 and it has been approved and validated by the health professionals.”

Mediscreen is a more efficient solution than telemedicine tools (two way video interviews or phone calls) since they still require doctors to be present, limiting the number of people who can be diagnosed on a daily basis.

Mediscreen is automated and fast as it allows doctors to create their own patient screening assessments with customized questions, diagnostic ratings and risk assessments. After creating the virtual triage, patients can complete the process remotely without the doctor needing to be online at the same time.

The digital screening report includes patient vitals like temperature, as well as the recorded video of the patient answering questions the doctor specifies. By creating flexible risk assessments, the doctors can automatically prioritize patients according to which symptoms the patient is experiencing and see how sick they might look.

The virtual “waiting room” lists patient profiles for doctors to review in order of risk priority. Doctors can access their “waiting room” from their laptop or mobile phone to review patients at any time by logging into their secure account. After reviewing the patient profile and records, the doctor can select from a variety of next steps, including:

• Send to emergency
• Recommend immediate physical testing
• Schedule a video call for further investigation
• Tell the patient they are ok

Each of these options can trigger an automated response to the patient, informing them of the doctor’s recommendation and next action.

Searchie is currently in talks with international governments and national health services to make Mediscreen available to all in order to help them deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

Sahiqa Bennett, co-founder and CEO, Searchie, said: “I was restless about what was happening in the world. I was on calls with the World Health Organization and The World Economic Forum who were asking us in the private sector for innovative solutions around COVID-19. It made me think of how we could help and speed was of the essence, (something that tech is good at). So we started to research by talking to doctors globally and seeing what was available. Most doctors didn’t have an effective way to deal with the sheer volumes of calls they were receiving.

Luckily we had already spent two years building the technology, so we just needed to add in a few new inputs and outputs, the complex part was done. We are currently in advanced talks with the US and UK governments, to make our technology available. This would need to be linked to the national health service for a seamless service. We’re currently discussing a variety of models, ultimately it’s about getting this out to the citizens as fast as possible, so this will be led by governments and clinics. Thanks to our incredible team, formed of experts in data science, machine learning, psychology, designers and developers – who worked day and night. They knew this could make a difference to millions of people, so they made it happen. We are launching this week and if any governments or health services would like to find out more please reach out, this takes a collaborative effort….prescreening can assist.”

For more information, please visit www.mediscreen.ai or contact the Searchie team on

info@mediscreen.ai.