A Technological Empowered Healthcare Delivery in the Era of COVID-19

A. Background Having originated from Wuhan China, the Covid-19 virus is almost in all continents including Africa. Covid-19 has caused a collapse of social life due to the nature of how it is transmitted. However, some countries have begun to relax on strict lockdown measures, allowing social services including schools, markets and offices to reopen. The same is true of Rwanda, where social services such as markets, shops and supermarkets and restaurant have started to operate, which is a key step in reviving the economy. Although it will take time before life returns to normal, however, we highlight two aspects of social life where technology will prove vital in ensuring that business, schools, hospitals, office space and general day to day social life of people continues as smooth as possible. This can only be the case if measures are put in place that will boost public confidence in systems and places of work, shopping and mode of transportation. B. Goals and Objectives The main goal is to design, develop and deploy technology enabled preventive solutions to combat community spread of covid-19 through Mobile App integrated, effective health/mask screening kits and social distancing/Count alerts. Specific objectives are: 1. Design and develop a smart and portable vital sign Screener "Health Neighbour Smart Kit (HeNSk)" 2. Develop a low complexity facial recognition algorithm for mask checking and alert accordingly to allow or deny access/entry. 3. Develop a mobile app which interconnects public transport drivers, health personnel and ambulance drivers to allow them communicate and coordinate their efforts in taking necessary measures in handling potential Covid-19 cases. 4. Design and develop a smart distance checking camera system called "Smart Distance Check Kit (SdChek) and alert accordingly. 5. Develop a low complexity distance checking algorithm that allows the camera to scan and check the distance between customers and also between customer and front desk employees. 6. Derive new insights through predictive analysis up on the collected data, query and visualize through dashboard plots. C. Methods The study seeks to provide legitimate IoT based solutions to aid the creation of an enabling environment leading to the improvement of the Rwandan society's resilience to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. It is important that for any such solution(s), the beneficiaries of the solution should be involved during the development of the solution. This is because, although people may not know what the solution is, but they have first-hand experience with their problems. Hence, we leverage local knowledge by involving local IoT experts in the project team. Where a need for health expertise will be required, the relevant qualified health professionals will be consulted so as to ensure that we adapt our solution(s) to local context. It must be noted that to achieve the above highlighted objectives, existing off the shelf components will be used, making our solutions low cost and environment friendly. D. Expected outcomes The expected outcomes of this project include: 1. Screening Module: 20 • Health Neighbor Smart Kit (HeNSk) o Public is screened for health conditions and updated/alerted via App to concerned authorities automatically o Can be deployed in all public places which has more people gathering like public transports, Malls, Conference halls, Worship places, Marriage halls, market places etc. o Portable and deployable at any place of need • Face Mask Recognizer o Public is screened for masks, alerted and denied entry without mask. o Can be deployed in all public places which have more people gathering like public transports, Malls, Conference halls, Worship places, Marriage halls, market places etc. o Installable at any place of need 2. Smart Distance Module: • Smart Distance Check Kit (SdChek) o Automated queue management o Useful in any people crowded locations o Portable and deployable at any place of need • Distance alert o Alerts on distance reduction • Count alert o Prescribed count of people maintained based on meeting halls/marriage/worship places. o Count down displayed at the entrance, based on which doors can be opened or remains closed. o Smart App: o Mobile App has details synced with Health Neighbor Smart Kit (HeNSk) and communicates accordingly to health workers and ambulance drivers. o Data acquired can be analyzed further for meaningful insights and actionate accordingly. o Details and visualization charts area wise, gender wise (face recognition) etc., can be a possibility