Moscow is leading among European cities in the innovations ranking that help curb COVID-19

Moscow is recognized the first among European cities in the innovations ranking that help form resistance to coronavirus. It is ahead of London and Barcelona.

Among the world's megalopolises, the Russian capital ranks third after San Francisco and New York. Boston and London complete the top five. The rating was compiled by the StartupBlink international research agency.

Almost 160 advanced solutions that are used to control the coronavirus spread helped Moscow achieve high rates.

Computer vision algorithms based on artificial intelligence are among them. This technique has already helped radiologists to analyze more than three million studies.

Another innovative solution is a cloud platform uniting patients, doctors, medical organizations, insurance companies, pharmaceutical production and websites.

Technologies that help adapt the citizens life during the pandemic also contributed to high results. There are also projects in the field of smart tourism, e-commerce and logistics, as well as remote work and online education.

Experts of the StartupBlink agency assessed measures taken in Moscow in terms of epidemiological indicators and effect on the economy.

Moscow experience

When controlling the coronavirus, Moscow has abandoned the extremes. The emphasis was placed on prevention: the number of free express-testing and vaccination points was increased, online programs and training platforms were patented, and telemedicine capabilities were developed.

The Moscow healthcare system accumulated a sufficiently large safety margin during the pandemic, which allows not to stop the planned and emergency care even during periods of COVID-19 peak incidence.

The capital supports businesses by allocating subsidies and providing benefits. This year, about 25 thousand small and medium-sized enterprises took advantage of the supporting measures.

How the rating is compiled

The rating is based on the global map of innovative solutions on controlling coronavirus and evaluates about 100 leading cities and 40 countries across the world. The Global Map was created in March 2020, and over a thousand solutions were added to it during the year.

The rating algorithm takes into account the number and type of innovations that are used when controlling coronavirus. The projects admitted for examination had to meet three basic criteria including innovation, relevance (the solution should directly respond to the challenges of COVID-19) and reliability. Additional points are awarded for individual outstanding initiatives. All decisions are pre-moderated and selected by experts according to the criteria of quality and reliability of information.