Public Health - Santé Publique
84.8K views | +0 today
Public Health - Santé Publique
Health
Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Rescooped by Lionel Reichardt / le Pharmageek from healthcare technology
Scoop.it!

An Urban Population Health Observatory System to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness, Response, and Management

An Urban Population Health Observatory System to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness, Response, and Management | Public Health - Santé Publique | Scoop.it
From publichealth.jmir.org - June 21, 2021 2:09 AM

COVID-19 is impacting people worldwide and is currently a leading cause of death in many countries. Underlying factors, including Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), could contribute to these statistics. Our prior work has explored associations between SDoH and several adverse health outcomes (eg, asthma and obesity). Our findings reinforce the emerging consensus that SDoH factors should be considered when implementing intelligent public health surveillance solutions to inform public health policies and interventions.


Objective: This study sought to redefine the Healthy People 2030’s SDoH taxonomy to accommodate the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we aim to provide a blueprint and implement a prototype for the Urban Population Health Observatory (UPHO), a web-based platform that integrates classified group-level SDoH indicators to individual- and aggregate-level population health data.


Methods: The process of building the UPHO involves collecting and integrating data from several sources, classifying the collected data into drivers and outcomes, incorporating data science techniques for calculating measurable indicators from the raw variables, and studying the extent to which interventions are identified or developed to mitigate drivers that lead to the undesired outcomes.


Results: We generated and classified the indicators of social determinants of health, which are linked to COVID-19. To display the functionalities of the UPHO platform, we presented a prototype design to demonstrate its features. We provided a use case scenario for 4 different users.


Conclusions: UPHO serves as an apparatus for implementing effective interventions and can be adopted as a global platform for chronic and infectious diseases. The UPHO surveillance platform provides a novel approach and novel insights into immediate and long-term health policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and other future public health crises. The UPHO assists public health organizations and policymakers in their efforts in reducing health disparities, achieving health equity, and improving urban population health.

 

access the study at https://publichealth.jmir.org/2021/6/e28269/

 

Lire l'article complet sur : publichealth.jmir.org


Via nrip
more...
No comment yet.
Sign up to comment
Rescooped by Lionel Reichardt / le Pharmageek from healthcare technology
Scoop.it!

Case-Initiated COVID-19 Contact Tracing Using Anonymous Notifications

Case-Initiated COVID-19 Contact Tracing Using Anonymous Notifications | Public Health - Santé Publique | Scoop.it
From mhealth.jmir.org - June 14, 2021 3:26 PM

We discuss the concept of a participatory digital contact notification approach to assist tracing of contacts who are exposed to confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19);


 


The core functionality of our concept is to provide a usable, labor-saving tool for contact tracing by confirmed cases themselves


 


the approach is simple and affordable for countries with limited access to health care resources and advanced technology.


 


The proposed tool serves as a supplemental contract tracing approach to counteract the shortage of health care staff while providing privacy protection for both cases and contacts.



  • This tool can be deployed on the internet or as a plugin for a smartphone app.

  • Confirmed cases with COVID-19 can use this tool to provide contact information (either email addresses or mobile phone numbers) of close contacts.

  • The system will then automatically send a message to the contacts informing them of their contact status, what this status means, the actions that should follow (eg, self-quarantine, respiratory hygiene/cough etiquette), and advice for receiving early care if they develop symptoms.

  • The name of the sender of the notification message by email or mobile phone can be anonymous or not.

  • The message received by the contact contains no disease information but contains a security code for the contact to log on the platform to retrieve the information.


 

Conclusion

The successful application of this tool relies heavily on public social responsibility and credibility, and it remains to be seen if the public would adopt such a tool and what mechanisms are required to prevent misuse.


 


This is a simple tool that does not require complicated computer techniques despite strict user privacy protection design with respect to countries and regions. Additionally, this tool can help avoid coercive surveillance, facilitate the allocation of health resources, and prioritize clinical service for patients with COVID-19. Information obtained from the platform can also increase our understanding of the epidemiology of COVID-19.


 


read this concept paper at https://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/6/e20369


 


 

Lire l'article complet sur : mhealth.jmir.org


Via nrip
more...
No comment yet.
Sign up to comment
Rescooped by Lionel Reichardt / le Pharmageek from healthcare technology
Scoop.it!

Shortcomings with the AI Tools and Devices Preventing COVID-19?

Shortcomings with the AI Tools and Devices Preventing COVID-19? | Public Health - Santé Publique | Scoop.it
From www.altoros.com - May 10, 2021 10:52 AM

Since the start of the pandemic, new technologies have been developed to help reduce the spread of the infection.

Some of the most common safety measures today include measuring a person’s temperature, covering your nose and mouth with a mask, contact tracing, disinfection, and social distancing. Many businesses have adopted various technologies, including those with artificial intelligence (AI) underneath, helping to adhere to the COVID-19 safety measures.

 

As an example, numerous airlines, hotels, subways, shopping malls, and other institutions are already using thermal cameras to measure an individual’s temperature before people are allowed entry. In its turn, public transport in France relies on AI-based surveillance cameras to monitor whether or not people are social-distancing or wearing masks. Another example is requiring the download of contact-tracing apps delivered by governments across the globe.

 

However, there are a number of issues.

 

While many of these solutions help to ensure that COVID-19 prevention practices are observed, many of them have flaws or limits. In this article, we will cover some of the issues creating obstacles for fighting the pandemic.

 

Issue #1. Manual temperature scanning is tricky

Issue #2. Monitoring crowds is even more complex

Issue #3. Contact tracing leads to privacy concerns

Issue #4. UV rays harm eyes and skin

Issue #5. UVC robots are extremely expensive

Issue #6. No integration, no compliance, no transparency

Regardless of the safety measures in place and existing issues, innovations are already playing a vital role in the fight against COVID-19. By improving on existing technology, we can make everyone safer as we all adjust to the new normal.

 

read the details at https://www.altoros.com/blog/whats-wrong-with-ai-tools-and-devices-preventing-covid-19/

 

Lire l'article complet sur : www.altoros.com


Via nrip
more...
nrip's curator insight, May 8, 2021 1:54 AM

Yes, there are issues with some of the innovations being used. But a faster response is a useful response. I found this post extremely well researched and accurate , and not necessarily negetive. We need criticism of good intentions to make them better. This post does that. These is a valuable list of some shortcomings and some mistakes which will be worked on and improved. Sometimes by changing the system, sometimes by changing the financial model, and sometimes by changing behaviour and mindset.

 

The future of healthcare contains a lot of AI. That bit is true.
Richard Platt's curator insight, May 10, 2021 11:29 AM

Since the start of the pandemic, new technologies have been developed to help reduce the spread of the infection.

Some of the most common safety measures today include measuring a person’s temperature, covering your nose and mouth with a mask, contact tracing, disinfection, and social distancing. Many businesses have adopted various technologies, including those with artificial intelligence (AI) underneath, helping to adhere to the COVID-19 safety measures.  While there are many AI solutions to help ensure that COVID-19 prevention practices are observed, many of them have flaws or limits. In this article, we will cover some of the issues creating obstacles for fighting the pandemic.   

Issue #1. Manual temperature scanning is tricky
Issue #2. Monitoring crowds is even more complex
Issue #3. Contact tracing leads to privacy concerns
Issue #4. UV rays harm eyes and skin
Issue #5. UVC robots are extremely expensive
Issue #6. No integration, no compliance, no transparency
Regardless of the safety measures in place and existing issues, innovations are already playing a vital role in the fight against COVID-19. By improving on existing technology, we can make everyone safer as we all adjust to the new normal.
Sign up to comment
Rescooped by Lionel Reichardt / le Pharmageek from healthcare technology
Scoop.it!

Anatomy of digital contact tracing: Role of age, transmission setting, adoption, and case detection

Anatomy of digital contact tracing: Role of age, transmission setting, adoption, and case detection | Public Health - Santé Publique | Scoop.it
From advances.sciencemag.org - June 17, 2021 8:57 AM

Contact tracing aims to avoid transmission by isolating, at an early stage, only those individuals who are infectious or potentially infectious, to minimize the societal costs associated with isolation. Considerable resources are therefore directed at improving surveillance capacities to allow efficient and rapid investigation and isolation of cases and their contacts. To enhance tracing capacities, the use of digital technologies has been proposed, leveraging the widespread use of smartphones. Therefore, proximity-sensing applications have been designed and made available to automatically trace contacts, notify users about potential exposure to COVID-19, and invite them to isolate.


 


The efficacy of digital contact tracing against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic is debated: Smartphone penetration is limited in many countries, with low coverage among the elderly, the most vulnerable to COVID-19.


 


Quantifying the impact of digital contact tracing is essential to envision this strategy within a wider response plan against the COVID-19 epidemic.


 


We modeled this intervention together with household isolation assuming a 50% detection of clinical cases. In a scenario of high transmissibility (R = 2.6), we found that household isolation by itself would produce a reduction in peak incidence of 27%, while the inclusion of digital contact tracing could increase this effect by 30% for a reasonably achievable app adoption (~20% of the population) and by 144% for a large-scale app adoption (~60%). At a moderate transmissibility level (R = 1.7), the app would substantially damp transmission (36 to 89% peak incidence reduction for increasing app adoption), bringing the epidemic to manageable levels if adopted by 32% of the population or more.


 


The app-based tracing and household isolation have different effects across settings, the first intervention efficiently preventing transmissions at work that are not well targeted by the second.


 


Moreover, app-based contact tracing also yields a protection for the elderly despite the lower penetration of smartphones in this age category.


 


These results may inform the inclusion of digital contact tracing within a COVID-19 response plan.


 


read the study at https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/15/eabd8750


 

Lire l'article complet sur : advances.sciencemag.org


Via nrip
more...
nrip's curator insight, June 16, 2021 12:06 AM

Contact tracing works, if done right. In the early stages of the pandemic, a number of issues with contact tracing were seen. A majority of them were to do with the lack of knowledge/training about how to carry it out And the magnitude of the task it entailed for a set of untrained workers. 

 

A contact tracing strategy must be built into public health surveillance systems and evolved to be with the times whenever needed, with the hope that it is not needed.
Sign up to comment
Rescooped by Lionel Reichardt / le Pharmageek from healthcare technology
Scoop.it!

Acceptability of App-Based Contact Tracing for COVID-19

Acceptability of App-Based Contact Tracing for COVID-19 | Public Health - Santé Publique | Scoop.it
From mhealth.jmir.org - June 14, 2021 3:27 PM

The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest public health crisis of the last 100 years. Countries have responded with various levels of lockdown to save lives and stop health systems from being overwhelmed. At the same time, lockdowns entail large socioeconomic costs.

 

One exit strategy under consideration is a mobile phone app that traces the close contacts of those infected with COVID-19.

 

Recent research has demonstrated the theoretical effectiveness of this solution in different disease settings. However, concerns have been raised about such apps because of the potential privacy implications. This could limit the acceptability of app-based contact tracing in the general population. As the effectiveness of this approach increases strongly with app uptake, it is crucial to understand public support for this intervention.

 

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the user

acceptability of a contact-tracing app in five countries hit by the pandemic.


Methods: We conducted a largescale, multicountry study (N=5995) to measure public support for the digital contact tracing of COVID-19 infections.

 

We ran anonymous online surveys in France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States and measured intentions to use a contact-tracing app across different installation regimes (voluntary installation vs automatic installation by mobile phone providers) and studied how these intentions vary across individuals and countries.


Results: We found strong support for the app under both regimes, in all countries, across all subgroups of the population, and irrespective of regional-level COVID-19 mortality rates.

We investigated the main factors that may hinder or facilitate uptake and found that concerns about cybersecurity and privacy, together with a lack of trust in the government, are the main barriers to adoption.


Conclusions:

 

Epidemiological evidence shows that app-based contact tracing can suppress the spread of COVID-19 if a high enough proportion of the population uses the app and that it can still reduce the number of infections if uptake is moderate. Our findings show that the willingness to install the app is very high. The available evidence suggests that app-based contact tracing may be a viable approach to control the diffusion of COVID-19.

 

read the study at https://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/8/e19857

 

Lire l'article complet sur : mhealth.jmir.org


Via nrip
more...
nrip's curator insight, June 12, 2021 5:34 AM

A lot of research and anecdotal evidence shows that mHealth/Mobile App based contact tracing can suppress the spread of COVID-19 if a high enough proportion of the population uses the app. 

that it can still reduce the number of infections if uptake is moderate is interesting to note.

 

 
Sign up to comment
About Follow us Resources Terms Mobile Features
Facebook
X
LinkedIn