Practical Tools to Use and Share

A message from Health Innovators Fellow SreyRam Kuy‍
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I developed the Kuy COVID-19 Preparedness Assessment Tool to help organizations and communities rapidly assess their preparation for COVID-19 and identify areas of weakness for future strategic targeting. I've tailored one version for businesses and another version for healthcare systems. My goal is to have every organization and community in America assess their preparedness for COVID-19 and use the data to help them be optimally and strategically prepared.

These tools are designed to be rapidly deployed across an organization or community. The tools are online, based on CDC guidelines for COVID-19 preparedness, and can be completed within 2-3 minutes with mostly yes/no answers. They are free, and users get immediate feedback via a simple score card that identifies their areas of weakness to enable strategic planning.

Based on my previous experiences as Chief Medical Officer at Louisiana Medicaid, Associate Chief of Staff at the Houston VA, Special Advisor to the Secretary of the VA and then Deputy Under Secretary for Community Care for the VA during crises such as the Zika epidemic, Hurricane Harvey, flooding, the opioid epidemic, and political firestorms, these are the key criteria that I've found very helpful for a crisis management tool.

I have also convened a working group of doctors to put together guidance on best practices for businesses and healthcare systems, which I will share as soon as it's ready. 

My team at Catalyst @ Health 2.0 just launched a website to track digital health innovation in response to COVID-19 and to help catalyze digital health solutions where they're needed most by providing a space for open calls, like this one submitted by my fellow Health Innovators Fellow Hanni Stoklosa:

If you or anyone you know is looking to connect about creating or finding a digital health solution during these times, we hope this tool can be useful for you.

-Indu Subaiya, Health Innovators Fellow

SreyRam Kuy‍ re: Kuy COVID-19 Preparedness Assessment Tool. Would be really curious how you are dealing with the Infection Control piece given known asymptomatic spread. 1) Are you considering ALL patients "suspected COVID"? 2) Also there is minimal evidence to support airborne spread during non-aerosolizing procedures-- are you recommending airborne precautions for all suspected cases (N-95, when supplies exist, per CDC) or only for aerosolizing procedures? 

Hanni Stoklosa‍ SreyRam Kuy‍ and any other healthcare professional Fellow - in the past few days have stood up a dedicated collaboration site for healthcare professionals only to rapidly exchange info and coproduce solutions on the fly. Message me your email address and linkedin link and I'll invite you to the site. SreyRam Kuy‍ might be a good virtual home for your group also, ping me if you need a private Group within the site. (URL is covid19.hivenetworks.com but requires invite and code to participate)

Carolyn Wong Simpkins MD PhD
carolyndca@gmail.com
 

Hey everyone. I created a Daily Journal to track common symptoms of COVID-19 on the Karen app. Sign up at yeskaren.com/coronavirus. Then you'll be able to download the Karen app and your COVID-19 Journal will start sending you symptoms to track with real-time charting to view trends. Take care!

David Williams- thanks so much for sharing. I do think that these tools can be falsely reassuring, given the high number of asymptomatic COVID (+) patients and the fact that COVID (+) patients are most contagious when they are asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic. 

Hi Hanni,

The goal of symptom tracking when asymptomatic isn't to reassure that one does not have coronavirus. It is to establish a baseline of measurements prior to symptoms emerging, if they do. This way a person has a baseline and a timeline if symptoms do emerge--which is highly beneficial for physicians and tracking those who have interacted with someone. The behavior of capturing the information is the goal, not necessarily reassuring someone that they do not have it. We do share information with our users that being asymptomatic does not guarantee they do not have COVID-19.

Best,
David

Hello David! 
I    think I     hear where you're coming from, nice adaptation of Karen. I    share Hanni Stoklosa‍ 's concerns though. There is currently much greater concern and danger in people in the community being over confident. at this point. I'd be super excited to see an app that tracks someone's wanderings and potential contacts, maybe gamify their distancing score. Know of anyone working on that?
Best,
Carolyn

Hi Carolyn,

Thanks for your thoughts. I respectfully disagree with your assessment of what is of "much greater concern." That said, every mobile phone has the information that tracks wanderings and contacts. This is the brewing fight in Washington about making all mobile phone available to the government for use to track everyone's whereabouts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/17/white-house-location-data-coronavirus/

Of course the tech companies are pushing back against the government gaining access to that information. More to come on that point for sure.

David

As Founder & CEO of GetWellNetwork, we are in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis with an opportunity to impact patients and providers profoundly in the days and weeks ahead. We've launched an online Readiness Center and we can help immediately:

1. Help patients (providers), members (managed care), employees (employers) self-monitor, self-quarantine and track symptoms at home vs. racing into ERs, hospital testing sites, etc. where risk of infection and spread increases and costs escalate.
2. Help health system providers, care management and nursing staff (payers) and human resource professionals (employers) streamline outreach and triage impacted people to the most effective and efficient care setting. 

VISIT THE READINESS CENTER

https://info.getwellnetwork.com/covid19-readiness-center

-Michael O'Neil, Health Innovators Fellow