Health Observation App for COVID-19 Symptom Tracking Integrated With Personal Health Records: Proof of Concept and Practical Use Study
Health Observation App for COVID-19 Symptom Tracking Integrated With Personal Health Records: Proof of Concept and Practical Use Study
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DOI：
10.2196/19902
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发表时间：
2020-07-06
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Iwami, Taku
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Yamamoto, Keiichi;Takahashi, Tsubasa;Iwami, Taku
背景资料：作为防止新型冠状病毒病（COVID-19）传播的反集群措施，迫切需要一个有效的医院外健康观察系统。个人健康记录（PHR）适用于身体状况的日常管理。重要的是，通过PHR进行日常健康观察收集的项目与COVID-19相关项目的观察之间没有重大差异。到目前为止，与COVID-19相关的观察仅基于疾病特异性项目进行。因此，我们假设PHR适合作为COVID-19的追踪工具。为此，我们将针对COVID-19的健康观察项目与现有的基于PHR的应用程序整合在一起。目的：本研究是在现实环境中进行的概念验证研究，旨在开发基于PHR的COVID-19追踪应用程序，并使用与PHR集成的智能手机或平板电脑应用程序演示COVID-19健康观察的实际用途。方法：我们在和歌山市公共卫生中心进行的积极流行病学调查中应用了基于PHR的健康观察应用程序。在公共卫生中心，列出了与已知感染病例密切接触的个人（卫生观察员）。当健康观察员将数据发送到公共卫生中心时，应用程序将使用电子邮件地址。每个健康观察员都下载该应用程序并将其安装在智能手机上。每天将自我观察的健康数据输入应用程序。然后在指定时间通过电子邮件将这些数据通过应用程序发送。当地的流行病学官员可以使用电子表格宏可视化收集的数据，从而监测所有健康观察员的健康状况。结果：我们使用该应用程序作为在公共卫生中心执行的主动流行病学调查的一部分。在调查过程中，发现了72名密切接触者。其中，57人采用了健康观察APP的使用方式，在APP推出之前，所有健康观察员都会通过电话进行访谈，这是一个缓慢的过程，4名流行病学官员花了2个多小时。应用程序推出后，一名流行病学官员就可以进行健康观察。该应用程序从3月初开始免费分发，到5月中旬，它已被日本各地的20，280多名用户和400个设施和组织使用。目前，COVID-19的健康观察已得到社会认可，并已成为恢复社会活动的要求之一。结论：PHR的健康观察，以改善健康管理为目的，也可以有效地应用于应对大规模传染病的措施。提高个人健康意识的个人习惯和使用PHR进行日常健康管理是防止传染病快速传播的强大武器。最终，类似的行动可能有助于防止COVID-19的传播。
Background: As a counter-cluster measure to prevent the spread of the infectious novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an efficient system for health observation outside the hospital is urgently required. Personal health records (PHRs) are suitable for the daily management of physical conditions. Importantly, there are no major differences between the items collected by daily health observation via PHR and the observation of items related to COVID-19. Until now, observations related to COVID-19 have been performed exclusively based on disease-specific items. Therefore, we hypothesize that PHRs would be suitable as a symptom-tracking tool for COVID-19. To this end, we integrated health observation items specific to COVID-19 with an existing PHR-based app.Objective: This study is conducted as a proof-of-concept study in a real-world setting to develop a PHR-based COVID-19 symptom-tracking app and to demonstrate the practical use of health observations for COVID-19 using a smartphone or tablet app integrated with PHRs.Methods: We applied the PHR-based health observation app within an active epidemiological investigation conducted by Wakayama City Public Health Center. At the public health center, a list is made of individuals who have been in close contact with known infected cases (health observers). Email addresses are used by the app when a health observer sends data to the public health center. Each health observer downloads the app and installs it on their smartphone. Self-observed health data are entered daily into the app. These data are then sent via the app by email at a designated time. Localized epidemiological officers can visualize the collected data using a spreadsheet macro and, thus, monitor the health condition of all health observers.Results: We used the app as part of an active epidemiological investigation executed at a public health center. During the investigation, 72 close contacts were discovered. Among them, 57 had adopted the use of the health observation app. Before the introduction of the app, all health observers would have been interviewed by telephone, a slow process that took four epidemiological officers more than 2 hours. After the introduction of the app, a single epidemiological officer can carry out health observations. The app was distributed for free beginning in early March, and by mid-May, it had been used by more than 20,280 users and 400 facilities and organizations across Japan. Currently, health observation of COVID-19 is socially recognized and has become one of the requirements for resuming social activities.Conclusions: Health observation by PHRs for the purpose of improving health management can also be effectively applied as a measure against large-scale infectious diseases. Individual habits of improving awareness of personal health and the use of PHRs for daily health management are powerful armaments against the rapid spread of infectious diseases. Ultimately, similar actions may help to prevent the spread of COVID-19.