COVIsual-19

COVIsual-19 is a visual tool that allows individuals who have been diagnosed with or are at risk of contracting COVID-19 to track their symptoms (e.g. fever, cough, shortness of breath, loss of sense or smell, abdominal symptoms) and view trends in real time. Through definitions embedded in the daily check-in form and explanations of symptoms available in the dashboard, COVIsual-19 enables patients to engage with their own health and actively monitor their disease. The share feature will promote more productive communication between patients, their loved ones, medical professionals, and employers. Secondary goals include providing answers to frequently asked questions, links to additional resources, and symptom trends as assessed by aggregate user data.

As of June 17th, 2020, COVID-19 had affected 2,249,183 Americans, with 2,132,321 cases and 116,862 deaths. In the past day, 27,975 new cases and 722 new deaths have been reported (CDC). Despite the increase in cases in 21 states, most states have reopened with only minor restrictions (Washington Post). 

To say the least, COVID-19 has posed a steep learning curve. Tackling this disease amidst technical jargon and sensationalized media has been overwhelming. Each of our team members knows individuals who have tested positive for this virus. We wanted updates from them, regular communication was difficult due to fatigue and even difficulty speaking. For those self-isolating, time zones were a barrier.

Now, the world is reopening without a cure or vaccine. As communities normalize life with masks, social distancing, and continued remote work, concerns of a second wave linger. Whether it’s returning to a college campus, an office, or resuming daily errands, we fear resurgence. We aim to address the lack of individuals’ knowledge and communication around the disease.

COVIsual-19 is our answer. Through this tool, we aim to support individuals as they navigate the virus - now and in the face of resurgence.

As people transition from sheltering in place to reopening, COVIsual-19 equips them with knowledge about the disease, a dashboard to track symptoms, sharing capabilities, and alerts for serious symptoms, all of which are possible to access easily, even if alone. Our tool makes this disease less overwhelming and more manageable.

Users can create accounts and log in to complete health assessments every morning and evening over a 14-day period (or longer if needed). Based on responses, they will be prompted to answer more specific questions about certain symptoms. Once they submit their answers, they will be able to view a visual dashboard of their responses, in other words,  a snapshot of their symptoms. Users can share their dashboards with loved ones and medical professionals, alleviating the burden of communicating updates to those who are understandably concerned but unfortunately remote.

While tracking increases patient confidence and engagement, sharing will be particularly helpful for the non-hospitalized and frontline workers who must isolate at home. Ultimately, COVIsual-19 will aid in safe reopening efforts.

The primary audience for our tool includes individuals who either have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or suspect they have contracted it due to demonstrated symptoms. In the case of those with suspected contraction, COVIsual-19 is a tool to monitor early symptoms at the potential onset of the disease. Regardless of the scenario, COVIsual-19 mitigates the effects of recall bias, providing medical professionals with more accurate information. 

The impact of this solution is two-fold: (1) individual and (2) community. In addition to patients, essential workers continue to carry the burden of this disease. For example, charged to treat COVID-19 patients despite the risks and uncertain facts, healthcare workers are upholding a commitment to provide quality patient care. Given the rising number of cases across states and countries, we have created this tool while bearing their burnout in mind. Our goal to ease communication regarding COVID-19 is bidirectional. Use of the sharing capabilities will lead to better and efficiently informed medical professionals who in turn can provide more effective and prompt treatment. Building communication around this disease that has become a significant aspect of daily life will support community connection and overall resilience.

Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our solution is a direct response to MIT Solve’s Health Security and Pandemics Challenge. Using a web application as our medium, we aim to offer a solution to improve accurate detection and rapid response for individuals affected by COVID-19. Through COVIsual-19, we are responding to early reopening by providing a platform for diagnosed and undiagnosed individuals. This electronic symptom diary is meant to make individuals proactive, not reactive, with their health. Early detection and response are key requirements to limiting the spread of the virus and protecting already overwhelmed healthcare systems.

COVIsual-19 focuses on and offers guidance regarding the individual experience of COVID-19. From our survey of various mobile and web applications, we found that most tools focus on gathering location- and demographic-specific information, and many do not offer outputs beyond the number of cases and deaths in a given county or square-mile radius. While there is certainly use for aggregate data, we would be remiss to ignore the more personal guidance and support needed to tackle COVID-19. An isolating disease, it removes the potential of any social interaction. An exhausting disease, it can muddle one’s sense of time and space, causing difficulty in recalling the course of rapidly-evolving symptoms. All along, it causes fatigue, leaving loved ones concerned.

Our tool focuses on the individual’s day-to-day clinical symptoms, not on collecting data to drive research. We have developed a prototype and envision a full-fledged tool that is easy-to-use, cohesive for adults and children alike, and provides individualized trends through data visualization that users can access on their dashboard.

The core technology that powers our solution is the use of a web application. Using this as a medium, COVIsual-19 offers a symptom diary - a commonly used method of tracking symptoms by many general medical practitioners. By embedding this diary in a web application, we’ve made tracking interactive and responding more immediate. A web application makes possible a layered backend, allowing us to create for the individual while continuously improving for the COVIsual-19 community of patients, loved ones, and healthcare providers alike. We are using the platform of a web application in order to create a universal and free tool to assist with the tracking of COVID-19 symptoms.

COVIsual-19 is a symptom diary, or patient log, in a wab application form. As outlined by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the use of a symptom diary offers many benefits. Using a symptom diary gives patients a sense of control and direct involvement in their treatment plan. Writing symptoms, experiences, and emotions is an opportunity to document symptoms immediately following onset. As a daily behavior, focused information gathering and reflection can be therapeutic. It also allows visual learners to quickly scan documents and digest their own information. This practice helps organize the patient’s history, which ultimately makes for more meaningful clinical interpretation.

When the time comes to review progress with one’s medical professional, the benefits of a symptom diary are two-way for the healthcare provider and the patient. Symptom diaries reflect a more thorough history, which can potentially limit unnecessary laboratory and radiographic testing and avoid additional costs. As for the essential worker, reviewing a 14-day snapshot of symptoms requires significantly less time than interviewing a patient for information - all the while more saturated with recall bias. During the appointment, a diary can help patients recall and medical professionals identify nuances of symptoms within a disease process and can directly lead to lifestyle changes that lead to overall better mental, emotional, and physical health. COVIsual-19 is an electronic diary that visualizes trends and notifies the user when there are emergent critical symptoms. While such tools are usually available as apps for a premium fee, COVIsual-19 is free. 

COVIsual-19 requires a number of inputs. Its foundation is a web-application that offers many features. It allows users to create personal accounts, complete an initial diagnostic and subsequent morning and evening check-in forms, view their dashboard of trending symptoms, and share this via email or text with their support network of loved ones and medical professionals. The forms will include additional prompted questions based on data input, and the dashboard will include visuals showing symptoms trending every one to three days and a graph reflecting a 14-day snapshot. Throughout use of the tool, users can access definitions of technical language and explanations of different symptoms to ensure a more complete understanding of potential COVID-19 symptoms and better gauge their own. We will also make more information and resources available through a list of FAQs made available to users once they create accounts. Last but not least, we will offer live support via chat and email. Once we’ve expanded operations, we will offer live support via phone call as well.

Outputs include data visualization of trends as seen in the user’s dashboard. The daily behavior of recording will also make individuals more aware of their overall health. While COVIsual-19 is an interactive tool, it is also a resource of definitions, explanations, and links that will improve knowledge around COVID-19 as a manageable disease. The sharing feature enables users to stay connected with their support network with minimal effort, thus overall improving mental health and community resilience as we all navigate this pandemic.

As for outcomes, COVIsual-19 contributes to efforts for early COVID-19 detection, improved communication during a public health pandemic, and increased health literacy about a disease that has affected every individual in a very personal way. COVIsual-19’s model is transferable to other chronic and infectious diseases. Ultimately, we hope to use this concept to improve people’s overall physical health, mental well-being, and immunity.

As we are currently in the development phase of COVIsual-19, we have provided our prototype to a group of approximately 25 test users, including physicians, nurses, medical adjacent, and non-medical adjacent individuals. We are actively soliciting feedback for the web application development stage of our project, and after completion of the web application, we aim to have a user base of 1% of the current number of U.S. COVID-19 cases within the year, although all users will not be benefiting from COVIsual-19 simultaneously. For reference, approximately 2.1 million individuals are currently COVID-19 positive (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Within 5 years, our goal is to serve approximately 10 times the number of individuals we are able to serve within the first year.

Within the next few months, we aim to complete web application development of COVIsual-19 in conjunction with Iris Creative Co. We will then launch the site and begin sharing it with test users and private practice physicians, as well as hospitals. We will share a feedback form (including assessing interest in a mobile application version) with individuals and entities to whom the web application has been distributed, and consequently follow up with the test user group regarding feedback. We hope to have an updated version of COVIsual-19 by the end of 2020, and will then launch a publicity campaign and assess partnership opportunities with larger institutions and public health departments. At that point we will also discuss the mobile application version and next steps.

Within the next 5 years, we aim to adapt COVIsual-19 to a wider range of chronic illnesses and infectious processes. For patients with chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and sickle cell disease, it can be difficult to attend multiple medical appointments on a regular basis and to follow chronic symptom trends on a daily basis. COVIsual-19 could be used on a regular basis or during disease flares to monitor progress and success of treatment. For patients with infectious disease such as the seasonal influenza virus, this tool will serve as a way to track progression through the disease and provide information readily to others.

Our priority is finalizing our web application in a timely manner so that we may distribute it to the public at a time when it is most useful and assist as many individuals as possible. We anticipate a second wave amidst the reopening of schools, universities, and places of employment. We believe that there is a growing need for a tool that can help to ensure safety in returning to school and work. Despite this, the status of the pandemic is rapidly changing, and there is limited knowledge on COVID-19’s future trajectory. Therefore, we may experience setbacks associated with changes in trajectory and differences in reopening policies across the United States. Current barriers also include our team’s lack of background in web and mobile application development, as well as lack of funding.

If we are able to collaborate with Iris Creative Co., it will greatly expedite the development of the COVIsual-19 web application, allowing for distribution at a sooner date. In addition, the association with MIT and the Solve initiative will lend legitimacy to our project. We expect that with their financial and cross-industry support, we will have great success in transforming our concept into a fully-fledged product, securing strategic partnerships, and achieving a greater reach across diverse communities. In addition, given our background in medicine and public health, we are well-equipped to read and interpret the literature surrounding COVID-19, thereby allowing us to anticipate changes in disease trajectory and make improvements to COVIsual-19 in real time. Ultimately, we believe that the success of COVIsual-19 is dependent on commitment, adaptability, and passion for supporting individuals impacted by this virus. With these motivations in mind, our team is excited to take on the challenge.

Our team comprises three individuals with backgrounds in public health, medicine, and technology adoption. Our skills include data analytics, building of document control tools and qualitative surveys, clinical experience working with and surveying diverse patient populations, and experience in reading and interpreting medical journals.

Our team consists of our three co-founders: Mashal Mirza, Sukriti Mohan, and Bhavya Jha.

Our team’s background in data analytics has permitted us to build a prototype website and fully consider the elements that should be included in the web application stage of COVIsual-19. Experience in building document control tools makes us well-equipped to liaise with IT support and launch this project. A background in developing qualitative surveys for patients at various institutions has allowed us to develop subsets of questions for various user populations. Additionally, experience in working with diverse patient populations allows us to understand the salient takeaways for our users: in other words, what information provides useful information and is also easily digestible. Lastly, we have experience in reading medical journals and interpreting data and graphs, allowing us to understand and tailor our tool to the changing trajectory of the virus based on new evidence and guidelines. Our team is also well-connected within various university and hospital systems around the United States that we can turn to for logistical and knowledge-based support.

Perhaps most importantly, we were the first users of our own product. As the initial test users, we have firsthand experience in worrying about the health and well-being of our close ones. Therefore, we have a deeply rooted sense of what other users will be looking for in using our product.

We are currently partnering with Iris Creative Co, a Portland-based firm that is developing COVIsual-19 as a web application.

Our business model is a social business model. COVIsual-19 is a free digital tool for non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients and high-risk individuals to track and share their symptoms. These are frightening times for everyone, but especially for those who must isolate alone, possibly for weeks and away from family. With COVIsual-19, we aim to bring knowledge and comfort to patients, as well as their loved ones and clinicians. 

Our project is innovative because it is neither geographically-bound nor requires advanced health or digital literacy. The questions, which we’ve already translated into Spanish, are simple and take 2-3 minutes to complete. After answering them, COVIsual-19 provides salient takeaways in graphical form. For clinicians, it provides a standardized spreadsheet. 

Unlike other symptom trackers, our primary goal is not to aggregate data that drives research. Rather, our tool emphasizes the user and day-to-day symptoms. COVIsual-19 allows users to easily understand the progress of their disease by depicting trends. Our platform will help individuals actively engage in their health, increase health literacy, and communicate more productively with medical professionals.

With grant funding, we hope to collaborate with Iris Creative Co. in order to bring our vision to life. Once the website has been created with the desired functions, we are confident that it will remain financially self-sustainable. If we see success with COVIsual-19, we are interested in becoming a 501(c)(3) organization, where we can receive donations to further expand the website to encompass other infectious diseases and chronic conditions.

We are applying for grants to fund the initial development of an independent web application that will eventually be sustainable on its own. In order to complete this goal, we need to achieve a total of $30,600 in grant funding. 

We are also interested in eventually becoming a 501(c)(3) organization, so that we are able to receive donations for the expansion of our tool into a mobile application. It is important to us that we are able to keep COVIsual-19 a free resource for the duration of the pandemic.

If we see success with our tool and an interest in adapting it to other infectious diseases and chronic conditions, we will develop variations of COVIsual-19 for other patient populations. We are also interested in strategic partnerships with institutions including universities, health systems, corporations, and health insurance companies. We envision a partnership similar to Calm and Kaiser Permanente. Currently, Calm, a meditation application, is available to Kaiser Permanente members at no cost in order to aid the mental health of its members (Kaiser Permanente). Because our tool is designed to support the well-being of individuals, we hope that we can develop a similar relationship for institutions with many members who may be in contact with one another. COVIsual-19 can assist with planning a safe return to work spaces, schools, and places of employment.

When our dear friend, a nurse serving on the front lines of COVID-19, tested positive, she had no choice but to quarantine alone. Because we were worried about her health and well-being, we created this template for her to track her symptoms and her family and friends to follow along. Not only was this a way for her to stay accountable to following her own symptoms, but it was also an avenue to share information in real time. We hope that our tool helps others take an active role in their health.

In order to complete our web application in a timely manner, especially with the predicted second wave approaching, we hope that Solve’s funding assistance will allow us to complete web application development as soon as possible. Additionally, we would benefit from the guidance that the Solve community can offer in terms of shaping our project into a long-term solution and product. Finally, with the media and conference exposure, we will be able to share our project with the rest of the country.

Our priority is finalizing our web application in a timely manner so that we may distribute it to the public at a time when it is most useful. If we are able to collaborate with Iris Creative Co., it will greatly expedite the development of COVIsual-19, allowing for distribution at a sooner date. In addition, the backing of MIT Solve will lend legitimacy to our project through the media exposure. Thus, we expect that with the financial and institutional support, we will have great success in transforming our concept into a fully-fledged product, securing strategic partnerships, and achieving a greater reach across diverse communities. We would also like to explore the possibility of registering COVIsual-19 as a 501(c)(3) organization, so the legal and regulatory support that MIT Solve can provide would also be significant to our project.

In order to disseminate our tool to populations who will benefit the most from using our tool, we would like to partner with the following organizations:

1. Hospitals and clinics: we would like to share our tool with frontline healthcare workers who are at high risk of exposure to COVID-19.

2. Universities and schools: we would like to share our tool with institutions that may then regulate and monitor the status of COVID-19 positive individuals closely. 

3. Insurance companies: we would like to share our tool with insurance companies so that they can make it available to members of their networks who are COVID-19 positive.

We are interested in partnering with MIT Sloan’s Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management Group. The expertise of this group, especially in terms of moving ideas from early stages to effective products with substantial impact, is of particular interest to us. We would greatly appreciate the guidance and mentorship that TIES can offer, especially as this is our first entrepreneurial endeavor. We also are interested in the multidisciplinary knowledge of the TIES faculty. Our team’s background predominantly lies in the public health sphere, so we are eager to learn from those who are experts in strategic innovation and social impact.

We are qualified for this prize because our tool addresses the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Good Health and Well-Being. 

Our target population encompasses three main groups of individuals. First, we are targeting nonhospitalized patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or are presumed to have the virus. Next, we are targeting high-risk individuals (e.g. healthcare workers, essential workers) whose symptoms or lack thereof can be monitored consistently. Any change in symptoms will be informative in indicating whether they should be tested for the virus. Lastly, we are targeting individuals who will be returning to their places of employment within the next few weeks or months. It is vital that as the United States begins reopening, that we are vigilant about tracking individuals who may be part of the second wave of infections.

Given that COVIsual-19 is being developed as a web application, our target population has access to a laptop or mobile device, as well as the Internet. Although we have created a limited PDF version of our tool, smart phones and broadband access are ubiquitous in 2020, even within at-risk populations. 55-60% of Americans over 65 years in age have smart phones or broadband access, and 73% use the Internet. Among Americans who live in poverty, 71% own smart phones, and 82% use the Internet (NEJM Catalyst, Massachusetts Medical Society).

If we were to win The People's Prize, we would use the funding to advance our tool into a mobile application. We have received estimates of approximately $60,000 to make COVIsual-19 a mobile application. If we are able to make our tool available on mobile devices, it will make this resource more widely available and accessible. Additionally, we are interested in translating our tool into various languages. We have translated COVIsual-19's questions into Spanish in order to capture a larger proportion of non-English speaking United States residents. However, with more available languages, we could make our tool available globally.