What technology could we use to beat Coronavirus? What can we learn from the mobile app that Singapore built to beat coronavirus by targeting those with the disease rather than shutting down their whole economy with shelter-at-home orders? How will people have the confidence to go into public spaces now and two years from now without being exposed to life threatening contagious diseases?
Most people are healthy most of the time, but only a few are contagious. The "Am I Healthy?" mobile app provides a way to determine who is healthy and for public places to efficiently gate entry to only healthy persons. This would prevent sickness while also allowing the economy to thrive.
Restaurants, airlines, sports arenas, trains, music and sports events, etc, currently face a problem of customer confidence. Customers will not return until they can have some assurance that they are not at risk when entering these spaces. I propose that users would show their "Am I healthy?" app on their mobile device displaying "Certified Healthy" before entering a shared physical location.
The app would combine several points of data to determine risk of being contagious: survey of questions, temperature, breathing sounds, laboratory test results, location history, etc.
Am I Healthy? Mobile app mockup
I also posted the idea on Linkedin and had some good discussion about the app, potential challenges to overcome that would need to be solved.
Reliably Detect Healthy vs Potentially Contagious People
What if a person has covid-like symptoms but does not have covid? For example, what if a person has allergies? What if a person has a common cold or asthma? What if a person was around someone who had Covid-19 but didn't contract the virus? What if someone has a high temperature because of being in the sun or exercising? What if people can fool the app? What if a person doesn't have a mobile device?
If the app is not able to reliably detect who is a contagion risk then it won't work and could even make the problem worse. It could result in unjust discrimination.
In its simplest form, the app could include a survey. Microsoft has partnered with the CDC to provide a Corona Virus Self-checker which is a perfect example of an effective machine learning survey that optimizes the questions based on real data to differentiate who has corona and who does not.
If the app is not able to reliably detect who is a contagion risk then it won't work and could even make the problem worse. It could result in unjust discrimination.
In its simplest form, the app could include a survey. Microsoft has partnered with the CDC to provide a Corona Virus Self-checker which is a perfect example of an effective machine learning survey that optimizes the questions based on real data to differentiate who has corona and who does not.
Incentivize those who are contagious to do the right thing
No one wants to be sick or put others at risk. But it is important that we accurately identify who is a risk and to build proper economic incentives into the system so that sick persons are not penalized for being sick. Another advantage of this app is that refunds could be issued to sick people so that they are incentivized to do the right thing for the public good. New policies or laws could be put in place to require that vouchers to be issued to people who are determined to be sick. Airlines, Sports venues, etc. would be required to issue a voucher or refund to a certified sick person. This will remove the incentive for persons using the app to be dishonest and help people do the right thing for public health.
Who could build this
I think this is an important piece of technology that would help get the world back on its feet. I think Salesforce (my employer) or Google, Facebook, Microsoft or Amazon could build this. Governments could also be involved.Feature Details
- Survey - Answer questions about whether you are sick or not.
- Respiratory Sounds, use AI to listen to breathing and detect congestion. for example.
- Location history - has the person traveled to a location where a known outbreaks have occured? Has the person been in close proximity to an infected person?
- Property cleaning policies - What procedures has a location taken to ensure that they are virus free? (Perhaps this could be an extension to Google maps which would add information about what steps a location has taken to clean any potential viruses and include an audit record of latest cleanings performed, etc.
- Temperature - read temperature to detect fever.
- Lab results - connect with testing laboratories and enter results into the app database.
- Heath history - if a person has recovered from Coronavirus and been in quaranteen for sufficient period of time, and therefore has immunity, they are probably low risk.
- Vaccines received - Has the person been vaccinated against the highest risk viruses and is therefore lower risk.
Conclusion When I go into a public space I want to know that my risk of contracting a contagious disease is minimized. I want to know that the space owner has taken steps . This is a problem that is not going away in the next few weeks but will probably be with us for years to come. The current shelter-in-place resulting in most people sitting at home is not a long term solution and is going to soon create many other hardships. I think this app will provide value for many years to come given the increase in virus outbreaks in recent years which is likely to continue as viruses evolve. We need to be safe without having to live the rest of our lives in isolation and this app could be an important part of the solution.
Resources
Facebook discussion on this topic of what solution would be most helpful to solving the pandemic and enabling the economy to open backup.
Microsoft bot used by CDC to screen people who might need to go to hospital with symptoms link
How Taiwan and Singapore are using technology to stop the spread of Coronavirus.
MIT app using your location history to see if you have gone to a location suspected of having corona virus.
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