Coronavirus App to Provide At-Home Risk Assessment

coronavirus

Researchers at Augusta University are creating an app that will allow users to assess their COVID-19 infection risk at home in minutes, based on how they feel and where they've been. The app will direct at-risk individuals to the nearest testing facility, and provide local and public health officials with real-time data on the demographics of those most in need of prevention and treatment initiatives.

"We wanted to help identify people who are at high risk for coronavirus, help expedite their access to screening and to medical care and reduce spread of this infectious disease," explained Arni S.R. Srinivasa Rao, director of the Laboratory for Theory and Mathematical Modeling in Augusta's Medical College of Georgia (MCG) Division of Infectious Diseases, in a statement. Rao and Jose Vazquez, chief of the MCG Division of Infectious Diseases, are working with developers to finalize the app within a few weeks.

The app will ask users for a variety of information:

  • Where they live;
  • Demographics like gender, age and race;
  • Recent contact with any individuals who are known to have coronavirus or who have traveled to hotspots like Italy and China; and
  • Whether they've experienced common symptoms of infection (fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, sputum production, headache, diarrhea and pneumonia) and their duration.

An artificial intelligence-powered algorithm will then asses the user's information and assign a risk level: no risk, minimal risk, moderate risk or high risk. It will also alert the nearest facility with testing ability when it determines a health check is needed.

In addition, the collective information gathered by the app will provide researchers with data on where the virus is circulating as well as help them learn more about how it is spreading.

Rao and Vazquez have published a paper on their project in the in the journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. They plan to make the app available for free on the Augusta University website as well as through the Apple and Android app stores.

 

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • college students in a classroom focus on a silver laptop, with a neural network diagram on the monitor in the background

    Report: 93% of Students Believe Gen AI Training Belongs in Degree Programs

    The vast majority of today's college students — 93% — believe generative AI training should be included in degree programs, according to a recent Coursera report. What's more, 86% of students consider gen AI the most crucial technical skill for career preparation, prioritizing it above in-demand skills such as data strategy and software development.

  • laptop with a neural network image, surrounded by books, notebooks, a magnifying glass, a pencil cup, and a desk lamp

    D2L Lumi AI Updates Add Personalized Study Supports

    Learning platform D2L has announced new artificial intelligence features for D2L Lumi that help provide more personalized study supports for students.

  • three glowing stacks of tech-themed icons

    Research: LLMs Need a Translation Layer to Launch Complex Cyber Attacks

    While large language models have been touted for their potential in cybersecurity, they are still far from executing real-world cyber attacks — unless given help from a new kind of abstraction layer, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Anthropic.

  • young man in a denim jacket scans his phone at a card reader outside a modern glass building

    Colleges Roll Out Mobile Credential Technology

    Allegion US has announced a partnership with Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and Denison College, in conjunction with Transact + CBORD, to install mobile credential technologies campuswide. Implementing Mobile Student ID into Apple Wallet and Google Wallet will allow students access to campus facilities, amenities, and residence halls using just their phones.