Help Researchers Track the Spread of the Coronavirus With This App
How are you feeling today? Would it be great if a little more than usual? Go down? Feverish? The team of doctors and researchers hope you will have 10 seconds every day to self-report your symptoms (or lack thereof) to the new COVID Symptom Tracker app .
If enough people commit to reporting themselves, a team of doctors, professors and scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard School of Public Health. T.Kh. Chan, King’s College London, Stanford Medical School and the ZOE will be better equipped to identify potential coronavirus hotspots, understand what symptoms might predict the onset of coronavirus, track how the virus spreads, and potentially inform the health system about what might happen. …
To quote Dr. Andrew T. Chan , an epidemiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard School of Public Health T.H. Chan and the project’s lead researcher:
It is understood that the symptoms of COVID-19 can vary widely: some people have the virus with minimal symptoms or symptoms, such as diarrhea, that could be mistaken for something else. We know that there are actually no COVID-19 tests available and timely. It may be the best way to find out where hotspots are, new symptoms to look out for, and use as a planning tool for quarantines, dispatch of ventilators and medical equipment, and providing real-time data to plan for future outbreaks. Also, by tracking in real time the experiences of healthcare providers, we can better understand how to protect our first responders from this crisis.
I have been using the COVID Symptom Tracker app for the past few days and it actually only takes a few seconds every morning. I open the app and answer two questions, one about whether I was tested for COVID-19 (currently not), and the second about whether I feel healthy or have any unusual symptoms (currently healthy ).
Of course, I needed to enter a small amount of demographic information about myself before I started self-reporting – including the optional step of providing my name and phone number in case the research team wants to contact me for any reason – and what might interest you how the app will use your data.
The FAQ contains more information, but essentially your data is protected by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which means it can only be used for the purpose you agree to. In this case, “it means it can only be used to help medical science and healthcare providers better understand the coronavirus.” The team may share your data, removing any potentially identifying information, with other medical researchers, so make sure you agree with this before registering.
Another reminder: The COVID Symptom Tracker app is not a diagnostic tool and will not be able to determine if you have COVID-19. It is only intended to track people-reported symptoms in the US and UK to better understand how the coronavirus spreads and where it might spread further.
If that sounds like something you might want to participate in, the app is available for both Apple and Android .