The coronavirus is spreading at an alarming rate, and often people who show no symptoms are carriers and spread the virus before they even know they have it. Now, researchers and bioethicists from Oxford University have published a study in Science regarding the feasibility of developing mobile apps that would provide a way to perform contact tracing in near real-time.
As professor Christophe Fraser from the Oxford University Big Data Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, and lead author for the study says, “We need a mobile contact tracing app to urgently support health services to control coronavirus transmission, target interventions and keep people safe. Our analysis suggests that about half of transmissions occur in the early phase of the infection, before you show any symptoms of infection. Our mathematical models also highlight that traditional public health contact tracing approaches provide incomplete data and cannot keep up with the pace of this pandemic."
The co-author of the study and senior researcher from the Nuffield Department of Medicine, Dr. David Bonsall, explains, “The mobile app concept we've mathematically modeled is simple and doesn't need to track your location; it uses a low-energy version of Bluetooth to log a memory of all the app users with whom you have come into close proximity over the last few days. If you then become infected, these people are alerted instantly and anonymously, and advised to go home and self-isolate. If app users decide to share additional data, they could support health services to identify trends and target interventions to reach those most in need."
The basic idea of the study is to be able to develop a mobile app that doesn’t trace the user’s location while being able to report a positive coronavirus test result to everyone that encountered that user. By knowing they’re infected, it can help the individual stop the spread of the virus by practicing social distancing and seeking out medical treatment.
The study authors feel that a mobile app could help reduce the transmission of the virus, thereby averting other social and economic impacts that a pandemic creates.