Design and Manufacturing of a Smart COVID19 Tracing System

A: Background The premise of this research is based on some challenges for contact tracing including incomplete identification of contacts, inefficiencies in paper-based reporting systems, and delays in steps of identification of contacts to isolation of suspected cases of COVID-19 among contacts. This research project will assess feasibility of using a digital solution that consists of hardware and software using RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) technology with a non-contact temperature measurement to manage dynamic relationships between cases and contacts. This is because contacts may have links to multiple cases, and may become cases that generate further contacts. At software level, the contact history data can be processed centrally, typically either by a health authority like Rwandan Ministry of Health MINISANTE, the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) or by individual devices. B: Goal and objectives The overall goal of this research is to develop and demonstrate 'made in Rwanda' innovative products, which are effective non-contact temperature measuring machines for prevention and management of COVID-19 infection and other infectious diseases alike. Specific Objectives: i) To develop Digital tool for monitoring health conditions and storage of personal information to easy tracing when a person is found with COVID-19 ii) To measure the effectiveness of proposed innovative machine against the spread of COVID-19 infection C: Methods The process of contact tracing in Rwanda currently follows the following steps • COVID-19 case investigators identify all clinical data. • Use of human memory history to recall all contacts during the 2 days to 14 days window • Development of a roster of close contact and anyone who was in touch with the index case within the window period in time and space (within 1 m), • An active contact follow-up is therefore initiated by the command post to monitor, on a daily basis, any sign leading to possible cases. D: Expected results, outputs and Outcomes are The project will result in the following: • Potential reduction of spread of COVID-19 as a result of identifying infected people before infecting others • Reduced loss of time and money or resources to conduct COVID-19 test for people with no basic symptoms Expected Outputs include: • The project intends to make devices to test with people on eight (8) different institutions before they are distributed around the country. To implement this project, investigators shall host the software for data storage and monitoring on servers and register at least 500,000 users • The project shall implement nine (9) functional non-contact temperature measuring devices • The project study involves five (5) UR-CST students with different skills • Hosted software to track measurements from the devices in the real-time • Training of six (6) personnel from UR-CST to support the implementation and scale up the project The Expected outcomes are • Reduction in spreading COVID-19 as a result of people's awareness of their health conditions • An increment in people's awareness about COVID-19 as a result of regular temperature measurement on different sites. Only further evaluation and diagnostic testing may be required for people with high temperature to determine if someone has a COVID-19 infection. • Reduction in time and money spent on tracing contacts and unnecessary tests