Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Origin of Pandemics
Most cases of pandemics have originated through a zoonotic transmission of pathogens from
animal to human (Murphy, 1998). The World Health Organization (WHO) stipulates several
phases of zoonotic transmission as shown in table 1. The degree of zoonotic adaptations varies
between transmission within the animal population (Phase1) to transmission within the human
population (Phase5).
Phase 1 A virus has infected an animal but not any human
(By Noreen Qualls, DrPH1; Alexandra Levitt, PhD2; Neha Kanade, MPH1,3; Narue Wright-Jegede, MPH1,4; Stephanie Dopson,
ScD5; Matthew Biggerstaff, MPH6; Carrie Reed, DSc6; Amra Uzicanin, MD -
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/rr/rr6601a1.htm, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88162528)
Mitigation of Pandemics
Mitigation of pandemics can be performed in three stages.
1. The pre-pandemic period
2. The spark period
3. The spread period.
In the case of the COVID-19 outbreak, we are in the spread period and hence preparedness for
the mitigation of this pandemic should follow the conditions of the spread period. Preparedness
can be achieved during the spread period by
1. Global pandemic declaration
2. Risk Communications
3. Primary and secondary contact tracing and isolation
4. Social distancing
5. Vaccine or antiviral treatment
6. Situational awareness.
The concept of social distancing reduces the transmission of the infection. This practice directly
reduces the R0, it is illustrated in the image below. Every infectious disease is studied in terms
of two parameters, contagious and virulence. Contagiousness or transmission is measured by
the basic reproduction number (R0) and the virulence of a virus is measured by case fatality rate
(CSR).
By Masum The Great - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88541836
By www.scientificanimations.com - Illustration from https://www.scientificanimations.com/wiki-images . Data from: The Novel
Coronavirus Pneumonia Emergency Response Epidemiology Team. The Epidemiological Characteristics of an Outbreak of 2019
Novel Coronavirus Diseases (COVID-19) — China, 2020[J]. China CDC Weekly, 2020, 2(8): 113-122, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87553446
In cases where the infections don't have a direct cure, as the case with Covid19, the only way
to flatten the curve is to reduce contact between infectious and non-infectious people and
foresee the chances of a person getting infected (reduce the R0). The chances of infection also
depends on the life of the virus on surfaces. Covid-19 was detectable in aerosols for up to three
hours, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on
plastic and stainless steel.
Need for a Pandemic Management System
It is rightly said by Plato, "The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention."
Emerging information technologies that are creative, innovative, scalable and effective are one
of the reasons why global communication is no longer difficult and expensive. The same
advancements have resulted in a highly connected world which is ideal for an outbreak to
transform into a pandemic very quickly. A pandemic is a life altering situation where the true
sense of people, their strengths, weaknesses, instinctual focusses and the power to rise up as a
community, can be rightly discovered. The need for professionals, patients and citizens to come
together in order to actively enforce preventive measures is the need of the hour.
But battling Covid-19, one of the firsts to have hit the world at this scale and rate of spread
requires not just using the full array of political, demographic and socio-economic drivers, but
also looking beyond centuries-old strategies and incorporating methods that are radical, yet
useful and accessible across all cross sections of the community. The concept of connectivity
that we now have amongst us, can act as one of the major ammunition in our fight against the
same. When we can learn to use the power of converting connectivity into data, and then into
information, we can empower people to mitigate health crises and even save lives. This
connectivity is achieved through the way technology has evolved around the world,
increasingly connecting devices at break-neck speed through the medium of the internet. The
scope of this is widespread as almost 4.54 billion people were active internet users as of
January 2020 and the numbers are only projected to rise in the coming future. This is the very
reason why mobile phone and internet access devices are one of the biggest frontline tools that
can be utilised in order to introduce experimental as well as futuristic applications that can solve
global issues historically charted to change the course of the world.
One of the biggest mitigation strategies to counter the widespread pandemic of Covid-19 as
already discussed has been the practise of social distancing in order to reduce the transmission
of the infection. The system which currently exists is alarmingly providing a medium for people
who may be infected, to transmit the same to others. If we look at how healthcare professionals
across the globe are currently handling the scenario, focussing on the concept of social
distancing, they urge citizens to not physically visit hospitals and clinics, in order to counter the
possibility of exposure to the virus.
Another major system that works overdrive at situations such as these, are the governmental
and administrative departments, who need to work day and night to ensure that the spread of
the infection is controlled and their citizens are protected. For them, along with the execution of
preventive measures such as social distancing and curfews, it's also the process of managing
the concerns of the people by taking proactive measures such as contact tracing and providing
authentic and informative instructions to the general public that is critically important.
Governments of particular regions have been taking proper initiatives to curb public gatherings
and hence curb exposures from infected places or people. In addition, every single person
should have complete information about their health and a probability of them getting infected
based on their activities and exposures.
However, not everyone is a doctor/scientist or statistician to analyze and calculate the
probabilities of them getting infected unless a symptom is seen or felt. This is where there is a
requirement of a system backed by scientific data, which would help the general public as well
as the health care system officials to analyze the forthcoming situations. With this in mind, we
have envisioned the necessity of a pandemic management platform that can efficiently satisfy
the needs of the public, the patients and healthcare professionals, as well as the government
department in managing a pandemic situation.
Image courtesy: World Health Organization (WHO), managing epidemics
(https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/managing-epidemics-interactive.pdf)
RebuildTheChain
RebuildTheChain is a fully comprehensive Pandemic Management System that enables
government agencies to effectively curb the pandemic spread with automated contact tracing
and exposure analysis, and thereby revive the ailing economy which is severely affected by the
pandemic.
The system that we have come up with considers the following two main aspects :
● Providing a smooth and functional platform for the health departments across a
particular region, country or area to perform automated contact tracing, exposure
analysis, case management, public notification, quarantine management, spread
analysis and digital health card issuance. Different stakeholders can also acquire
relevant data points to contain the spread of the pandemic.
● An easy to use and informative mobile application that can be used by all citizens,
including the patients. It provides a primary symptom checker, information regarding
the real time updates of the pandemic, a location database indicating areas of risk or hot
zones, and a secure Digital Health Card that represents the user’s health status. It also
includes a virtual geo-fence that alerts the user if they are near to a hot zone or an
infected person. Various other features can also be integrated into the system such as
updates based on self testing kits, telemedicine facilities, etc, to name a few.
General Features
➔ Emerging Hotspot Analysis
After analysing the data, and applying required analytical models, the areas with higher
probability of becoming a hot zone can be identified in advance and sealed off before
another possible outbreak.
➔ Location Based Risk Mapping
The system identifies micro hot zones (such as restaurants, stores) as well as macro hot
zones (such as places) and calculates the risk score for a user based on their visit to
these places and based on the close contacts with people who visited these hotzones.
➔ Contact Based Risk Mapping
The system automatically keeps track of primary and secondary contacts of an infected
person and uses that data to calculate the risk score of a user.
➔ Global Interoperability
Interoperability is extremely necessary inorder to deal with the situation after the
pandemic is over. People from all over the world will be travelling from one region to
another. This leads to the need for a system that can manage permissioned access for
people across different countries. And it is for the same that we have a Pandemic Proof
Passport, a concept built on digital health cards.
➔ Cross Platform Compatibility
Our application is built for iOS, Android as well as KaiOS which allows people to use our
application not just in smartphones but also in basic feature phones which support
certain prerequisites. This enables a wider adoption across regional and demographic
differences leading to better pandemic management.
➔ Optimised Power and Battery Usage
Our application consumes power in the most optimum levels which are subject to
change depending upon the phone and data facilities availed.
How to use RebuildTheChain ?
High Level Description - User Application
1. Any user who wishes to use RebuildTheChain installs the application onto their
smartphones
2. Once installed, necessary permissions are to be allowed such as for notification, location
and bluetooth functions.
3. Following this, the user has the option to
a. Perform a self-diagnosis feature which provides the information regarding the
risk level for the user
b. Check the area map to know the hot zones
c. Know information such as updates and necessary precautions that can be taken
to prevent being infected
4. Based on the activities of the user, such as people they met or places they visited, the
system updates the health status and risk score of the user.
5. The system also alerts the user regarding potential threats such as hot zones, nearby
patients, primary contacts, secondary contacts etc.
6. Afterwards, the system generates a unique digital health card for the user. The
health-card will be displayed to the user each time they opens the application
7. Further on any day, the user has the feature to update their health conditions by
performing the self-diagnosis ( or with the help of self testing kits whose results can be
added to the application - functionality may vary for each region )
8. The user can also access helpline numbers and check for any nearby health facility using
the application
High Level Description - Authority Dashboard
Once the dashboard has been set up for the respective authority or the health department, they
have access to :
FEATURE DESCRIPTION
Route Tracking & Red Zone detection Automatically create the route map of an infected
person, real time detection of micro as well as
macro hot zones.
Spread Probability Analysis The system analyses and predicts the potential
spread of the disease to new locations
Exposure Analysis The system identifies the exposure of each citizen
to the disease based on their activities.
Alert & Notification Management (Geo) Settings to manage different notifications and
alerts sent to the users.
GIS Mapping & Analysis System performs GIS mapping and analysis to
predict the spread probability as well as to enable
virtual geo-fence for the users.
Access Control for different stakeholders Different levels of admins can be assigned
different functionalities based on the requirements
Historical Data Tracking Mobile data triangulation in order to trace the
travel history of the user prior to onboarding
APPLICATION PREVIEW
RebuildTheChain - User App
RebuildTheChain - Authority Dashboard
Working Model
RebuildTheChain uses compartmental models to simplify the mathematical modeling of
COVID-19. The population is divided into compartments, with the assumption that every
individual in the same compartment has the same characteristics. The models are investigated
through ordinary differential equations. RebuildTheChain (RTC) uses the SEIRS compartmental
model, where the different compartments are Susceptible, Exposed, Infectious, Recovered. For
COVID-19, there is a significant incubation period during which individuals have been infected
but are not yet infectious themselves. During this period the individual is in compartment E (for
exposed). A detailed explanation of the SEIRS model is provided in the appendix.
The platform also provides an option to change the mathematical model of the pandemic to
better fit with the pandemic conditions in different countries. Given below are the methods
adopted for each of the functionalities :
1. Contact Tracing
Contact tracing of a user is done via the analysis of the Bluetooth proximity data
available from the user’s smartphone. Here, the objective is to find the primary contacts
of an infected person.
{Cb}: Set of broadcast chirp ids of disease confirmed users
{Cr}: Set of received chirp ids of a user
Contact tracing {P} is calculated based on the above parameters as follows :
{P}: Match of broadcast chirp ids of infected person and received chirp ids of a
user= {Cb} ∩ {Cr}
2. Vulnerability Score
The vulnerability of a person against COVID-19 primarily depends on their exposure
analysis. That is, A person is more likely to get affected by COVID19 if they visit a hot
zone - which is a place where many COVID cases are reported. Or if they’ve come to
close contact with a patient, a primary contact or secondary contact.
{Cr}: Set of received Bluetooth chirp ids of the user
{Cb}: Set of identified vulnerable chirp ids
{L}: Set of user GPS ids
{Lv}: Set of identified vulnerable GPS ids
Cp: Probabilistic measure of a person being a primary contact = {Cb} ∩ {Cr}
Lp: Probabilistic measure of a person exposed to a hot zone = {L} ∩ {Lv}
: How fast people move from being susceptible to the exposed state. Based on
SEIRS model
D: Score generated from self-diagnosis
Vulnerability score (Vs) of a person against COVID-19 is calculated based on the above
mentioned parameters as follows :
Vs = Count (Cp) * count (Lp) * * D
3. Spread Analysis
The spread of the pandemic is mainly propagated through 2 channels. In the first one, a
person visits a hot zone and gets infected, travels to a new location and continues to be
an asymptomatic carrier. In the second channel, the primary/secondary contact of an
infected person gets infected and continues to be an asymptomatic carrier.
Here :
{S}: Set of susceptibles
{C}: Set of contact based susceptibles
{L}: Set of location based susceptibles
{S} = {C} ⋃ {L}
{Sc}: Set of current locations of susceptibles
Potential Hot Zones is formulated as : Max {Sc}
Comparative Analysis with other applications
After the study of features and functionalities offered by other applications that work in the
same domain as ours, it was observed that most of the other apps focus on different feature
sets, while ours is currently the only comprehensive system which cumulatively uses
technologies of GPS, Bluetooth, Geo-fencing and mobile triangulation in order to actively trace
contacts and bring down the R0 rate.
Feature BreakTheChain Trace Alipay Hamagen StayHomeSafe Arogya Setu
Together HealthCode
Contact Tracing Efficient contact tracing Short distance GPS enabled Checks GPS Geofencing Yes
for all using GPS bluetooth travel history history with technology
tracking & Bluetooth + signals. Manual mapping using location history
GeoFencing data share with WeChat/Alipay of patients
authority profiles
Notification & Alert Infected person/ - - Alerts Health Alerts Health Dept if -
System location proximity alert Dept if contact a user breaches
and Quarantine breach with an infected quarantine
Alerts to Health person is
Department established
Tele-medicine YES - - - - -
Integration Option
Functionalities
❖ User Application
For a citizen downloading this application, the biggest value point is the safety it offers them.
The app ensures absolute security and non crackability of the system. All the other necessary
requirements are ensured with the help of the following main features :
● Self-diagnosis
The self-diagnosis module considers a variety of aspects ranging from severity of the
symptoms if any, travel history, presence of other pre existing medical conditions such
as diabetes, blood pressure, smoking habits if any, as well as globally adopted
strategies such as breath holding capacity, duration etc. Afterwards, the user’s personal
profile is created which includes their name, age, gender, contact details including photo
for verification purposes.
Based on the input from the self-diagnosis module and after cross referencing it with
contact tracing and exposure analysis, a Digital Health Card is generated for the user
which represents their risk level. Even though the system only provides a high level
recommendation based on available data, it can be used as a first level system to ensure
your safety.
● Real Time Updates
The application provides real time updates of all information corresponding to the
pandemic. This includes data such as the total number of cases reported, undergoing
treatment, under observation, deaths, recovered all based on the location of the user. It
also has a provision for displaying real time news from verified sources aiding in keeping
the users away from fake news and information. There is also an option where the users
can read about the symptoms that need to be observed in order to identify the disease
by themselves as well as general hygiene guidelines which help in keeping them safe.
● Location Database
The app provides an option for the user to view the local map. The map will show hot
zones near to the user. This helps the user in identifying regions of low risk or high risk
based on which, the user can plan their commute for urgent matters. Not only that, the
users need not keep checking the map to know this as the platform will automatically
provide notifications whenever the user is near to a low/high risk patient. This kind of a
dynamic approach is highly useful in ensuring the proper implementation of social
distancing
❖ Authority Dashboard
For the Health Department, this platform will act as a comprehensive control medium which
keeps track of their major activities. The following are their benefits upon the adoption of this
system
● Digital Health Cards
A major feature of the application is the feature of categorising the citizens based on the
initial self-diagnosis, contact tracing and exposure analysis. This information becomes
crucial for the administrative department as it helps them in locating the high risk
category of people, accessing their location and ensuring their well being. It also helps in
resource management as the patients who are at a lower risk need not visit healthcare
facilities and unknowingly create a shortage of facilities.
● Pandemic Proof Passport
The Pandemic Proof Passport feature of RebuildTheChain is built on the digital health
card system. It enables countries to be confident that none of the people coming into
their country from other countries is affected by COVID19. Here, citizens from each
country will have the digital health card that indicates the health risk level assigned to
them via their local health departments. People with ‘NO RISK’ health cards could only
be allowed to travel overseas. Any person entering the country would also need to show
and verify their digital health card and can also be used for accessing any private or
public infrastructure within the country. This would help in opening up the economic
infrastructure of the country, including cross border activities, and at the same time
keep the pandemic in check.
● Patient Management
The platform allows for the creation of a database of all the patients who are currently
victims of the disease and are undergoing treatment at healthcare facilities. Details such
as their contact id, address, location, primary and secondary contact, status at any point
of time, etc are made available in the dashboard. The data for this can be either obtained
based on the user information from the application or manually added by the admins of
the health department. Features such as sorting the patients, filtering them, etc based
on various parameters are also possible.
● User Management
Users can be added manually to the system at the administrative end as well as through
the app categorisation. These users can also be sorted and filtered based on the
requirements.
● Location Management
The location management system allows the addition of the affected areas into the map.
The map used can be pedestal maps obtained from government sources in order to
ensure accuracy upto the latest detail. A buffer region can also be set based on the
location values which helps in the process of cluster identification.
● Helpline Management
Various helplines and other clinical facilities and their details can be added to this
platform. This ensures that as and when required, their details can be quickly accessed
by users.
● Notification Management
Another key area of the application is the notification management system. This system
creates user specific notifications. It is possible to create notifications where if any high
risk user has moved from their quarantine location, the health department will be
notified and they can follow up on the same. Also, notifications can be sent to any user
of a particular area if any high risk user reaches within a particular radius of the user.
This acts as a major boost in social distancing measures.
● Admin Management
The admin management section can add additional admins who overlook the operations
as well as sub admins who are assigned with specific tasks. These sub admins may be
segregated based on area which can help the authorities in assigning a task force based
on area to each of the sub admins if needed. This section can also have various profile
management features which can be integrated based on the requirement.
● Scanner Management
Each user of the application on completing the self-diagnosis will get a digital health
card and provided with a QR code that is unique to them. This QR code enabled digital
health card contains all the information regarding the user’s health status, condition
such as if under isolation or quarantine and other information. Using this health card, the
user can prove the authenticity of their reason for stepping out of their designated zone,
to an enforcement agency. That is, when a user comes in contact with the enforcement
agencies located at public areas such as metros, stations, parks, etc in order to ensure
proper lock down measures and social distancing measures are maintained, officers can
scan the digital health card of the user using their phone. Once the scanning is
performed, all the information regarding the user is obtained by the checker and
proceed with necessary actions as required.
Digital Health Card Categorisation
As long as a user is found to have
● No symptoms
● No prior travel history to any of the affected countries
● No known contact with an infected person based on
location mapping
Healthy User
Then he/she will be coded as a user with code : GREEN in their
health card
Features of Digital Health Card
➔ Issuing a Digital Health Card for every user enables user categorization based on their
health status. This is performed after careful analysis of data entered by the user,
combined with the results of exposure analysis and contact tracing done by the
application
➔ Blockchain technology is used to store health card information, which offers advanced
security compared to conventional data storage.
● With blockchain, user data is completely secure. Actual data entered by
the user is maintained with the user, whereas only a hashed version of
the personal information is maintained in the Blockchain.
● The immutability feature of blockchain ensures that the medical history of
a user is securely maintained, allowing enforcement agencies to
effectively keep track of a user’s health status
● As the data is stored in blockchain, it is assured that this data cannot be
tampered with in any manner
➔ The Digital Health Card ensures that all the health status updates across the country are
managed by only the Health Department with the help of a single pandemic
management system.
Pandemic Proof Passport
Even if a country successfully suppresses the spread of COVID-19 by enforcing lockdown, they
have to wait until other countries do the same, to completely open borders. Otherwise, one
COVID19 affected person arriving from a different country could evoke the second wave of
disease spread throughout the country. And this is a problem. We can’t stay in lockdown
forever. So how can we solve this?
The Pandemic Proof Passport feature of RebuildTheChain enables countries to be confident
that none of the people coming into the country is affected by COVID19. Here, citizens from
different countries will have a health card that indicates the health risk level assigned to them
via their local health departments. People with ‘NO RISK’ health cards could only be allowed to
travel overseas. Moreover, at places like banks, shopping malls, workplaces, etc, the entry can
be allowed only to people with ‘no risk’ health cards.
Following is the process flow :
Process Flows
Given below are the following user journeys
● General Process Flow
● User journeys for :
○ A Healthy User
○ A Covid-19 patient
○ A Primary Contact
○ A Secondary Contact
● Health Department Process Flow
● Scanner Application Process Flow
USER JOURNEY - GENERAL
Once the user downloads the application and chooses the Self-diagnosis option, they are
directed to verify their mobile number by generating an OTP. If the user is a patient, his
information would already be available in the backend and so he can skip the symptom checker
phase and directly have their profile created and get the digital health card. Otherwise, once the
mobile number has been verified, user will be directed to the symptom checker after which the
profile creation and the Health Card generation will take place. This is the general process flow
at the User’s end.
USER JOURNEY - HEALTHY USER
For a healthy user, once the app has been downloaded, he can choose to either access the
information services such as viewing symptoms, latest updates etc, or access information on
the map, or go to the self-diagnosis module.
Afterwards the user will be directed to verify their mobile number by generating an OTP. If the
user has not been tagged as Primary/Secondary contact, they will be added as a new user to
the database and will be directed to engage in the self-diagnosis. Following which, his profile is
created.
If it is found that the user shows no symptoms, has no prior travel history to any of the affected
countries and has not been in contact with any infected person based on the tracking
information generated by the platform, Colour Coded Health Card is generated with the code
set as GREEN. Subsequently the user has the option to contact any helpline service as well as
an option to update his health status.
The user will also receive timely notifications to update their health status as well as
information regarding any activity that may make the user be in contact with any risk.
As long as the condition of the user remains healthy, the status GREEN is maintained. During
the updation process, if at all any symptoms are observed, the Health Card will change its code
to RED ( infected ) and the necessary notifications are generated both to the user as well to the
health department
USER JOURNEY - INFECTED PERSONNEL
For an infected user, once the app has been downloaded, they can choose to either access the
information services such as viewing symptoms, latest updates etc, or access information on
the map, or go to the Symptom Checker. Afterwards the user will be directed to verify their
mobile number by generating an OTP. Since the user is a Covid-19 patient, their information
will be already available in the database and they will not have to go through the Symptom
Checker. Following which, the profile is created and the Colour Coded Health Card is generated
with the code set as RED.
Subsequently the user has the option to contact any helpline service, add or update any user as
their primary or secondary contact, as well as an option to update their health status. The user
will also receive timely notifications to update their health status as well as information
regarding any activity that may make the user be in contact with any risk or be of risk to any
other user.
As long as the condition of the user remains infected, the status RED is maintained. Once the
patient has successfully completed Quarantine period and his health status improved, the
Health Card will change its code to GREY ( recovered ) and the necessary notifications are
generated both to the user as well to the health department
USER JOURNEY - PRIMARY CONTACT
For a Primary Contact, once the app has been downloaded, the user can choose to either
access the information services such as viewing symptoms, latest updates etc, or access
information on the map, or go to the Symptom Checker. Afterwards the user will be directed to
verify their mobile number by generating an OTP. Unless they have not been already tagged as
a primary contact, the user will have access to the Symptom Checker and will check their
symptoms. Following which, the profile is created. If it is found that the user shows no
symptoms, may or may not have prior travel history to any of the affected countries and has
been in contact with an infected person based on the tracking information generated by the
platform or by voluntary declaration, Colour Coded Health Card is generated with the code set
as ORANGE.
Subsequently the user has the option to contact any helpline service, add or update any user as
their primary or secondary contact, as well as an option to update their health status. The user
will also receive timely notifications to update their health status as well as information
regarding any activity that may make the user be in contact with any risk or be of risk to any
other user.
As long as the condition of the user remains the same, the code ORANGE is maintained till the
isolation period is completed, following which their card code is set to GREEN. If at any point,
the health status of the user is found to be deteriorating, the health card is set to RED. Once the
patient has successfully completed Quarantine period and their health status improved, the
Health Card will change its code to GREY ( recovered ) and the necessary notifications are
generated both to the user as well to the health department
USER JOURNEY - SECONDARY CONTACT
For a Secondary Contact, once the app has been downloaded, they can choose to either access
the information services such as viewing symptoms, latest updates etc, or access information
on the map, or go to the Symptom Checker.
Afterwards the user will be directed to verify their mobile number by generating an OTP.
Unless the user has not been already tagged as a secondary contact, they will have access to
the Symptom Checker and will check his symptoms. Following which, the profile is created.
If it is found that the user shows no symptoms, may or may not have prior travel history to any
of the affected countries and has been in contact with a primary contact person based on the
tracking information generated by the platform or by voluntary declaration,Colour Coded Health
Card is generated with the code set as YELLOW.
Subsequently the user has the option to contact any helpline service, add or update any user as
their primary contact, as well as an option to update their health status. The user will also
receive timely notifications to update their health status as well as information regarding any
activity that may make the user be in contact with any risk or be of risk to any other user.
As long as the condition of the user remains the same, the code YELLOW is maintained till the
isolation period is completed, following which his card code is set to GREEN. If at any point, the
health status of the user is found to be deteriorating, the health card is set to RED.
Once the patient has successfully completed Quarantine period and his health status improved,
the Health Card will change its code to GREY ( recovered ) and the necessary notifications are
generated both to the user as well to the health department
FEATURES AND PRIVILEGES - HEALTH DEPARTMENT
At the Health Department’s end, the admin has access to the following sections
● Scanner Management : Enforcement agencies can use the scanner application to scan
the health card of the user they want to check the health status. Upon scanning, the
application fetches the health-card details from the blockchain network.
● Sub Admin Management : Performs all actions related to the creation and management
of sub admins and their profiles. Various levels of admins may be created who may be
assigned specific tasks as required by the admin. All information regarding those sub
admins are available in this section
● Notification Management : Section that manages all the notifications that need to be
generated with respect to each of the users as well back to the admins from the user.
The various types of notifications that can be generated include the following
■ If a user leaves the assigned quarantine area, they will be sent a
notification warning of the consequences
■ If a user leaves the assigned quarantine area, a notification will be sent to
the health department who can assign volunteers to manage the
situation
■ Timely notifications to all the users in order to actively ensure social
distancing and hygiene measures
■ Timely notifications to all the users to actively update their health status
■ Notifications regarding any news or government updates
● User Management : Section to manage all activities with respect to all the users ( other
than the monitored patients ).
● Patient Management : Section that manages all the patient related information, keeping
tracking of all details including their health cards and their notification system
● Location Management : Section that manages all the location related settings for
information overview in the map, as well tracking of each type of user, as well as in
cluster identification and management
● Helpline management : Section that keeps the details of all the registered healthcare
facilities and helplines
Scanner Management
The Scanner Management section allows for the admin to add authorised personnel as
scanners who will have access to a scanning application in their handheld device. When they
come in contact with any individual, they can scan the QR code of the individual’s health card
and cross verify the user with the help of his profile, which is obtained from the blockchain
network. Based on the health code of the individual, the scanner can take the necessary actions
as required. If at all, the individual is found to be flagged, the health department will be notified.
General Information
Data Privacy
The biggest concern for any user of the system may be the privacy of their data. The system
abides by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws which ensures that each
individual has control over their own personal data. Based on this, the system is implemented in
such a way that all the data is securely stored and stays within the government authorities of a
particular region. All data pertaining to location, and routing are stored on a secure government
network. All integrator platforms, including cellular communication networks that are
onboarded in our system comply with the data and privacy policies as stipulated by the
respective government agencies of the region. In order to ensure maximum security, the Digital
Health Cards generated for each user are securely stored in a blockchain network. This ensures
that the actual data remains with the user while only a hashed form of it is stored in the
network
Any data privacy laws with respect to the governance of any particular region can be complied
with our system in a short amount of time as required. In addition, the system incorporates the
following safeguards to ensure and enhance data security to its maximum
➔ Pseudonymization
Pseudonymization is a technique that is used to reduce the chance that personal data
records and identifiers lead to the identification of the natural person (data subject)
whom they belong to. Pseudonymization enables to uncouple specific data aspects
from a data subject, whereby the most identifying and/or sensitive data fields in the
record are replace by pseudonyms
➔ Data Aggregation
Another way to comply with GDPR is to group data in such a way that individual
records no longer exist and cannot be distinguished from other records in the same
grouping. This may be accomplished through a single aggregation of the data into the
most commonly consumed set or, more commonly, by creating multiple aggregations of
the data for different use cases.
➔ Data Encryption
In general, encryption refers to the procedure that converts clear text into a hashed code
using a key, where the outgoing information only becomes readable again by using the
correct key. This minimises the risk of an incident during data processing, as encrypted
contents are basically unreadable for third parties who do not have the correct key.
Encryption is the best way to protect data during transfer and one way to secure stored
personal data. It also reduces the risk of abuse within a company, as access is limited
only to authorised people with the right key.
➔ Decentralization
Decentralized solutions are a more reliable and secure method of interaction with user
data. If centralized storage uses a single unit to store data, decentralized storage stores
information on multiple physical locations that makes data restoration possible. And
when we add blockchain to the equation, we get highly secure storage for any data,
including the data of your users and customers.
The anonymity of users and data protection lie at the root of both GDPR and blockchain.
The latter is designed to be intensely private and equally secure. The public and private
keys allow participants to send and receive data with nearly absolute anonymity. The
public key is detached from any person and information is hashed, thus can’t be used to
identify the real person behind the scenes, making blockchain compliant with the
regulations.
Guidelines for Governments and Agencies
The scaling down of a pandemic is a hard process. The pandemic management system
incorporates the best and most innovative approaches in helping the community in this fight. In
order to do so, following are some of the strategies that the government can adopt and
encourage in order to ensure the maximum effectiveness of the system:
Maximum user adoption
The platform will function at its maximum efficiency when all the citizens have their health card
generated using the PMS system. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to emphasise on the
benefits the users will get by the mandatory use of the system. It is also important to let every
user know of all features and applications of this system in order to use it to the best of its
capabilities. In order to do so, proper instructions regarding the usage should be conveyed to
all. Along with this, it is of equal importance to address their grievances regarding the concept
of data privacy. If at all any user uninstalls the application before the crisis situation is over, he
must be contacted immediately and requested to download the application.
Efficient Scanning System
Strict measures should be adopted so that every citizen is scanned at each of the entry and exit
points in order to prevent the inflow of new cases of infection. In case at any of these points, a
new user is encountered, they must be mandatorily asked to download the application and
their health status must be updated in the admin side of the system. If at all any citizen is found
to have suspicious health conditions, they must be mandated to follow the required quarantine
measures. Scanning processes should also be adopted at all public places to make sure that the
health status of the citizens moving about are satisfactory and do not pose any threat to the
community. If any user is found to move about without following their quarantine measures,
their details will be flagged in the system and proper actions need to be taken against them.
Data Discrepancy
A large part of the success of this system depends on the cooperation and coordination of the
citizens. This point should be highly emphasised by the government agencies so that the
people can recognise the seriousness of the situation and provide accurate information as input
to the system. If a discrepancy arises in the information entered by a user and the information in
the database, it should be flagged and appropriate action to be taken against the citizen.
Health Resource Management
All the data manually entered into the system needs to be clearly vetted and verified in order to
prevent any sort of data discrepancy. It should also be ensured that there are an optimal
number of helplines actively available in order to address the grievances of the citizens. The
efficiency of isolation and home quarantine measures can be ensured by arranging timely
follow up calls and visits.
Appendix I : SEIR Model Overview
The SEIRS models the flows of people between four states: susceptible (S), exposed (E), infected (I),
and resistant (R). Each of those variables represents the number of people in those groups. The
parameters alpha and beta partially control how fast people move from being susceptible to exposed
(beta), from exposed to infected (sigma), and from infected to resistant (gamma). For COVID-19 the
immunity after infection wanes over time. Rho is the rate at which recovered individuals return to the
susceptible state due to loss of immunity. If there is sufficient influx to the susceptible population, at
equilibrium the dynamics will be in an endemic state with damped oscillation. This model has two
additional parameters; one is the background mortality (mu) which is unaffected by disease-state,
while the other is vaccination (nu). The vaccination moves people from the susceptible to resistant
directly, without becoming exposed or infected.
Parameter Definition
Gamma The rate at which an infected person recovers and moves into the resistant phase.
Rho The rate at which resistant people lose their resistance and become susceptible
again.
Initial The number of susceptible individuals at the beginning of the model run
susceptible
Initial exposed The number of exposed individuals at the beginning of the model run.
Initial infected The number of infected individuals at the beginning of the model run.
Initial The number of recovered individuals at the beginning of the model run.
recovered
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