Health Radius

For institutions of higher learning, the in-classroom exchange of ideas and networking opportunities represent one of the most significant benefits of pursuing a degree. Recent data showing a rise in COVID-19 transmission among college athletes suggest that safety concerns could jeopardize the coming school year. Health Radius is a smartphone app that tracks symptom and geolocation data to establish safety thresholds for classrooms. Using artificial intelligence to screen for transmission risk can improve the allocation of testing resources to those individuals who exhibit the potential for asymptomatic shedding of the coronavirus. With widespread adoption of this approach on a global scale, geolocation-based alerts could provide alerts to individuals when entering a location where active virus may be present. This strategy could facilitate relaxation of social distancing measures without jeopardizing the safety of individual users.

In the state of Wisconsin there are 71 colleges and universities enrolling 211,401 full time students. The current daily COVID-19 testing capacity for the state of Wisconsin is 15,508. Despite the fact that most schools are planning to resume classroom activities in the fall, there are no well outlined strategies to ensure the safety of teachers and students. On June 1, the NCAA lifted its moratorium on organized sports. However, as student athletes and athletic personnel returned to campus new cases were reported at Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Marshall, Mississippi, and Alabama. In light of the limitations in testing capacity and the impracticality of testing all participants in the University setting on a routine basis, a data-driven approach is needed to establish screening parameters which can allocate testing resources in the most effective manner.

The Health Radius Smartphone App serves as a “COVID-Clear” passport for users through self-reporting of symptoms and geolocation history. Since the virus can remain active on various surfaces and individuals typically remain asymptomatic for an average of five days after infection, an individual could potentially pose a risk for transmission simply from traveling within the same location as recent active virus. Given that the Wisconsin Department of Health Services provides an application programming interface (API) which updates infection rates at the census tract level (locations with approximately 4,000 residents) on a daily basis, it is possible to identify individuals who have traveled to locations with active virus within the previous 5-7 days. By incorporating symptom and geolocation data into the screening process for entering the university setting, individuals with potential exposure risk can be tested to prevent unknowing exposure to other members of the classroom.

This solution serves the student population in Wisconsin’s institutions of higher learning. By facilitating an earlier return to the classroom, this technology has the potential to improve not only their educational prospects but also their ability to successfully enter the competitive job market after graduation.

“MIT Solve is seeking tech innovations that can slow and track the spread of an emerging outbreak, for example by improving individual hygiene, developing low-cost rapid diagnostics, analyzing data that informs decision making, and providing tools that support and protect health workers.”

This innovation will unmask the location of active virus within a community. By driving awareness, mitigation efforts can be more effective through expanded social distancing and hygiene efforts in geographies where high levels of vigilance are required. Complementary to test and trace efforts, this technology can allow for return to normal classroom activities without introducing unacceptable exposure risks.

COVID-19 mitigation efforts have largely focused on contact tracing approaches, with digital contact tracing via smartphone apps garnering a great deal of attention due to the privacy features which can be achieved through the exchange of encrypted Bluetooth signals. This strategy was first employed by the TraceTogether app in Singapore and has subsequently been adopted by the MIT Private Kits app as well as the Apple/Google API which was made available to public health agencies. However, all of these solutions require high adoption levels on the order of 60% and lack the necessary incentives to achieve this degree of engagement. By addressing the problem in a proactive fashion and linking participation with access to events in which social distancing is undesirable, the Health Radius app differs from other technology solutions in a fundamental way. The use of blockchain ledgers to enhance privacy protection serves as a further innovation which can improve the accuracy of the predictive models derived from the data collected through the app.

The Health Radius platform relies on a mobile application to collect a unique data set that includes symptoms related to COVID-19, geolocation, and test results to develop Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning algorithms which can be used to determine probability risk for exposure to active virus. Users with more than minimal risk for exposure can then be further screened with PCR testing before participating in activities which require relaxed social distancing measures.

Geolocation based apps are commonly used for a variety of purposes. Mapping apps are currently used by over 200 million Americans for navigation purposes. The application programming interface (API) associated with these technologies can be harnessed to design unique features in apps such as Streetviolence.org (a service that allows victims of assaults to pinpoint where the crime took place) and Weather Hopper (a micro-regional weather forecast that allows users to anticipate precipitation probabilities). The current proposal takes a novel approach in which this same geolocation data can be paired with the probability risk of active virus in a specific building to enable more thoughtful and targeted approaches to containment.

Activities

Symptom reporting

Outputs

Infection risk based on geolocation and symptom history

Short Term Outcomes

Increased awareness of exposure risk

Medium Term Outcomes

Improved social distancing and mitigation efforts

Long Term Outcomes

Lower transmission rates within a community

Earlier return to mass gatherings and normal economic activity

Current number: <10

One Year: 100,000

Five Years: 1,000,000

Establishing the safe return to classrooms in selected universities represents the immediate goal to be achieved within the next year. Between one and five years, the goal would be to further deploy this technology in various types of mass gatherings with the potential to return economic activity to pre-pandemic levels.

The primary barrier involves achieving high levels of adoption needed to optimize the artificial intelligence features of this approach. Beyond the current pandemic, retaining high user adoption will require the implementation of new features to deliver additional health benefits.

The challenge faced by universities, casinos, live sporting and entertainment events, and other businesses that require mass gatherings to ensure viability involves the reluctance of participants to voluntarily engage in a technology solution such as the Health Radius App. By focusing on the university system as a beachhead market, we propose an option where the “default” mode of education would be the continued use of videoconferencing. While this would ensure the safety of students and faculty, it would also hinder one of the primary value propositions associated with institutions of higher learning. By linking access to these mass gathering events to app participation, we hope to overcome the adoption challenge.

Data Scientists: 4

Clinicians: 3

Business Executives: 2

Laboratory Medicine Experts: 1

The complexities associated with restarting economic (or educational) activities during a phase of the pandemic when daily case counts continue to rise require that a multi-specialty approach be implemented as part of the solution. In this case, deep expertise in technology (AI/ML, blockchain, big data, Mobile app development, etc), Medicine (epidemiology, virology, infectious disease, etc.), and economics (supply chain management, behavioral sciences, marketing, etc.) is required to implement a solution which can be effective in the short  term. The collaborative relationships of the various institutions represented in southeast Wisconsin serves as another asset in that a city of less than 1 million residents offers a geography that is small enough to establish feasibility but large enough to address scalability.

Clinical Translational Science Institute-Coordination of research efforts

Medical College of Wisconsin-Clinical trial/ IRB protocol; infectious disease support

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee-Business expertise/supply chain management

Milwaukee School Of Engineering-Data science/Statistical support

89 Clouds-Data science, blockchain, coding

Department of Health Services-Data management on COVID-19 cases via API

The product is geared towards businesses and has two pricing models available based on the usage. The

first model is geared towards businesses that may need one-time screening (Theme Parks, Airlines, or

Sporting Events). The second product is geared towards businesses with a recurrent user base (Property

managers). Concierge service that allows businesses to access customizable business intelligence reports

are also available.

Subscription Per person

Product 1 $10,000 annually $5 per person

Product 2 $5,000 annually $ 1 per person per month

An investment of $2.6 M is needed over the next two years. Piloting the app in Wisconsin will require a $500 K investment, which will be raised through seed funding. Scaling the app to a national user base will be achieved through Series A financing of $2 M within a year of starting operations.

While the technology solution to mitigation is relatively straightforward—notify individuals when they are at risk for exposure so they can take preventative measures—the implementation and end-user adoption challenges make this approach extremely complicated. Despite the diverse technology, health care, and business background of our team, an undertaking of this magnitude will require partnership with an even broader range of talents to achieve the levels of community engagement, marketing strategy, and behavioral incentives that are needed to achieve the high levels of adoption at which this approach can be the most effective.

The partnership goals for this project include personalized support, an audience of global leaders, innovative community, mentorship, strategic advice, technical expertise, and business and entrepeneurship training, funding, partnerships, and acceleration. To help us accelerate our work, validate our impact and business model, and scale our solution, we will need the partnership opportunities available through SOLVE.

MIT Sloan School of Business

MIT Safe Paths Private Kit team

Our team is comprised of health care workers who are on the front lines of the pandemic. Our common goal is to leverage technology solutions that can mitigate transmission of the coronavirus while allowing communities to return to the economic activity that is needed for so many businesses and organizations to survive and thrive amidst this current crisis.

The data collected from our app can be used via AI algorithms to predict and prevent future outbreaks.