Digital contact tracing is a technique for tracking contacts between infected patients and users that relies on tracking technologies, which are frequently built on mobile devices. During the COVID-19 epidemic, it first gained widespread attention in the form of COVID-19 apps.
Since the initial outbreak, many organizations have created unconventional protocols, most notably Blue Trace and Exposure Notification, to enable extensive digital contact tracing.
There are two competing methods of tracing proximity when considering the limitations of mobile devices: GPS and Bluetooth; each has disadvantages of its own. Google and Apple jointly declared on April 10, 2020, that their Android and iOS operating systems would include support for such Bluetooth-based apps.
Methods for Digital Contact Tracing
Digital contact tracking apps use Bluetooth technology to send out a distinct signal from each phone that has the app downloaded and receive the signals given out by other phones that have the app downloaded. Each signal has an anonymous ID connected to it.
The software can identify adjacent phones based on these signals, allowing users who test positive for COVID-19 to inform their contacts and those nearby so they can take necessary action.
Earlier this year, Google and Apple issued a protocol for using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to enable exposure notifications and a set of APIs allowing interoperability between Android and iOS devices with downloaded digital contact tracing apps.
Digital contact tracing relies on interoperability because the system would be useless if Android devices couldn’t trace contacts on iOS devices and vice versa. Even more so considering that iOS and Android smartphones now dominate the market.
Manual contact tracing, which only really works if COVID-19 patients can identify everyone they have been near in the preceding two weeks, is far less complex than this. As a result, it has limited success. Theoretically, digital tracing techniques can perform this operation much more accurately and with less margin for mistakes.
Benefits of Digital Contact Tracing
Discover Who Was Made Public, For How Long, And Where They Went:
One benefit of a technologically advanced electronic solution like Bio Vigil is that it automates the most important steps in contact tracing. Staff personnel who use Bio Vigil wear badges that trace their movements from room to room and send out gentle reminders to remind them to wash their hands.
Give The Medical Professionals Assurance:
A similar level of comfort is offered by electronic contact tracing, which notifies hospital staff of exposure and enables them to conduct tests sooner. By confirming whether or not they are ill and, if necessary, placing them in quarantine as soon as possible to stop the spread of the illness to their friends, family, and coworkers, this early testing can reduce stress.
Eliminates The Requirement For Physical Contact Tracing:
Electronic contact tracking can replace and automate manual processes. Since electronic tracking is quicker and more accurate than manual tracking, it requires less work from hospital staff. The faster hospitals can locate and contact exposed staff and patients, the sooner they can confine or test them and do it in a way that minimizes the spread of the infection.
Save Hospital Management Time By Reporting:
Hospital administrators who are required to report on COVID-19 and other HAI outbreaks can receive real-time data and reports when contact tracing is carried out online. For instance, Bio Vigil compiles aggregate and personal HHC data into straightforward reports and dashboards.
Read Biometric Security: Enhancing Identification Pros & Cons.
Disadvantages of Digital Contact Tracing
Privacy Issues With Data
Many issues have arisen regarding data privacy and the conclusions that governing bodies might draw from that data if given access. Some app users are concerned that they may be subject to increased government surveillance. To combat this, the NHSX has made their app open-source so that others can examine and comment on it.
Various Proximity Measurements
Due to the way Bluetooth estimates distance, users who reside in highly populated places, such as high-rise apartment complexes, may seem to apps as being nearby or in the same space if the apps are unable to recognize that a wall separates them from one another. In addition to this, environmental factors like air temperature can impact how efficiently digital contact tracking apps receive signals.
Insufficient Published Data
There is currently no available data that shows how well contact tracing apps work to cut down on transmission. There is presently no published data to support the hypothesis that apps like NHS Track & Trace could lower the rate of transmission, despite modeling studies’ suggestions to the contrary.
Reduced Efficacy in Regions with Lower Smartphone Ownership Levels
A large portion of the population uses older cell phones, thus they are not included in the data collection process because the apps require technology that is only available in newer devices to function. However, due to interoperability, iOS and Android share the same protocol and can communicate.
Bluetooth Interference
Wireless interference from gadgets such as power cables, microwaves, fluorescent lamps, wireless video cameras, and cordless phones may cause Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices to become disconnected or perform poorly.
Metal or magnetic phone cases can interfere with or obstruct radio signals, which can affect Bluetooth and other similar tracking technologies.
Depending on Enough Testing Capacity
The fact that the region they operate in must have proper testing capabilities is another disadvantage of contact tracing apps. The app won’t be able to notify other users that they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 if users are unable to obtain tests efficiently.
Tools for Digital Contact Tracing
Tools For Case Management
Case management tools for contact tracing and case investigation gather information on contacts and cases, which can allow manual contact tracing and medical monitoring techniques to work more effectively. The following functionalities should typically be present in a case management tool:
- The capacity to guarantee data security and confidentiality of large volumes of client data is essential to upholding public confidence in using any case management application.
- Interoperability capability to import or synchronize data in real-time from laboratory systems, information systems, and/or public health authority (PHA) including state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments.
- The capacity to support manual entry by the PHA and self-report from cases for the identification/elicitation and documentation of known contacts of clients with COVID-19.
- The capability to manually or automatically deliver notifications to users. There are following messages are:
- Notifying contacts about their exposure and the potential time window during which it may have happened.
- An initial questionnaire regarding their symptoms and detailed instructions on how to consistently track and report on their health status and symptoms. This will guarantee that their information gets to the PHA’s contact management staff and that aggregate information reaches the appropriate state and federal partners.
- Public safety communications to identified contacts that inform them about COVID-19, its typical indications and symptoms, and reinforce government-defined prevention messaging like social withdrawal and self-quarantine.
- The ability to send notifications in many formats, including emails, SMS, and voice messages.
- The ability to generate data at the individual and aggregate levels in support of the aforementioned worker and PHA-level process metrics.
- The ability to create alerts or workflows from both contacts and the system, for example, the existence of symptoms, to facilitate proper follow-up or contact requests for information.
Based on the CDC Guidelines for the Implementation and Use of Digital Tools to Augment Traditional Contact Tracing, researchers have conducted preliminary evaluations of tools ready for use, such as proximity contact tracing, medical monitoring aids, and data management systems.
The CDC is still evaluating tools to determine their suitability for usage in facilitating particular processes for case investigation, monitoring, and contact tracing.
Tools For Tracking Distance
Numerous initiatives call for the use of smartphones as “sensors” to identify people who may have COVID-19 by their proximity or exposure to them. Several initiatives are currently underway in the US and elsewhere to create accurate, energy-efficient, and privacy-preserving mobile applications.
There is currently a dearth of information on how well these programs function in US communities, especially in terms of their sensitivity and precision for recognizing actual close contacts. There are still significant gaps in the availability of many tools that could make it difficult for them to be implemented.
Tools For Medical Monitoring
Health departments currently connect with clients and contacts for TB and other infectious diseases using some medical monitoring techniques. The use of these techniques for both active engagement, such as Skype or Zoom Facetime, with high-risk individuals and self-reporting of daily temperature checks, signs, and symptoms for those who have been diagnosed with or exposed to COVID-19, can increase the effectiveness of medical monitoring. Additionally, some case management systems have technology built-in to push alerts generated by the system.
In the US, discussions focus on GPS and Bluetooth as the two main technologies. Few published empirical data demonstrating the capabilities of either technology are available at the moment. The following is a rough list of benefits, drawbacks, and implementation difficulties.
