A Touchless Tool to Screen for Covid-19 for reopening Industries

加拿大正在进入新冠肺炎疫情的一个重要但危险的阶段：重新开放工业。因此，迫切需要一种快速准确的筛查工具，以帮助确保重新进入职场的人是新冠肺炎阴性的。这项提议为这一目的提供了一种创新、易于实施和快速的筛查工具。基于我们多年用于诊断目的的呼吸音分析，我们假设新冠肺炎阳性者的呼吸声将具有不同的特征，即使此人没有症状。因此，基于我们在声学诊断设备设计方面的专业知识，我们提议以iPhone应用程序的形式开发一个集成诊断模式识别工具，使用音频和温度作为输入来识别新冠肺炎阳性个体。拟议中的数字技术将对健康或可能对新冠肺炎呈阳性的个人进行筛查。然后，将建议对后一组进行进一步测试。拟议中的APP的目标是提供更准确的早期筛查(目前只测量体温)，并减轻新冠肺炎检测的负担。这种数字技术最初将在马尼托巴省使用和测试，后来将在加拿大全国范围内使用和测试，未来有可能公开使用。 要使用拟议的筛查工具，将一部iPhone放在距离口腔1厘米的范围内，并指示患者通过口腔进行五次深呼吸。这些人的呼吸声将被iPhone记录下来，同时他/她的体温也将被热像仪记录下来。该应用程序将首先使用其声学分析来识别声音是健康的还是异常的。如果结果不正常，将提供一份调查问卷，并进行进一步的声学分析，以排除其他常见的共病情况(如慢性肺部疾病)。最后，根据输入，诊断算法将决定是否应将该个体转介进行进一步测试。由于拟议的最终产品是一款智能手机应用程序，这两家软件合作伙伴公司将在最终的整合和开发中发挥关键作用。

Canada is entering the important yet dangerous phase of the COVID-19 pandemic: the reopening of industry. As such, there is an urgent need for a quick and accurate screening tool to help ensure people re-entering the workplace are COVID-19 negative. This proposal offers an innovative, simple-to-implement and quick screening tool for this purpose. Based on our many years of respiratory sounds analysis for diagnostic purposes, we hypothesize that breathing sounds of a COVID-19 positive person would have different characteristics even if the person is asymptomatic. Thus, built upon our expertise in designing acoustic diagnostic devices, we propose the development of an integrated diagnostic pattern recognition tool in the form of an iPhone app, using audio and temperature as inputs to identify COVID-19 positive individuals. The proposed digital technology will screen individuals as healthy or possibly COVID-19 positive. The latter group will then be recommended for further testing. The goal of the proposed app is to provide much more accurate early screening (currently only temperature is taken), and to reduce the burden of COVID-19 tests. This digital technology will be used and tested in Manitoba initially and later nationally in Canada, with the potential of being publicly available in the future. To use the proposed screening tool, an iPhone is held within 1 cm of an individual's mouth and the individual instructed to take five deep breaths through the mouth. The individuals' breathing sounds will be recorded by the iPhone, while his/her temperature will also be recorded by the heat camera. The app will first use its acoustic analysis to identify sounds as healthy or abnormal. If the outcome is abnormal, then a questionnaire will be provided, along with a further acoustic analysis to rule out other common comorbid conditions (e.g. chronic lung disease). Finally, based on the inputs, the diagnostic algorithm will decide if the individual should be referred for further testing or not. Since the proposed end product is a smartphone app, the two software partner companies will play a crucial role in the final integration and development.