Compass

The COVID-19 crisis exposed the gap in access to modern health-tech tools, such as triaging websites or health-monitoring apps; homeless populations in particular generally do not have reliable internet access, although many have mobile phones with SMS capability. To address this problem, we seek to deploy an NLP-driven, HIPAA-compliant, mobile-based (mHealth) intervention in Uganda that triages COVID-19. Users are anonymously assigned to a stratified risk level and directed to the nearest affordable testing site, which accesses the triage information via a secure clinician-facing portal. Acknowledging that COVID-19 has a timeline, we are expanding our platform to triage cancers and communicable diseases like HIV, TB, and malaria in order to contribute to ongoing surveillance efforts.