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A smartphone app that alerts users to coronavirus exposure has been released for general use in Alabama and experts have said it could become a powerful tool in curbing the spread of the virus.
The GuideSafe exhibition notification app is free to download and available to all Alabama residents with iPhone and Android devices. It communicates confidentially with other users of the app to track contacts who have spent 15 minutes within 6 feet of each other, which is the exposure time used by public health officials for contact tracing.
The app does not identify individuals or track locations. But it does allow users to receive notifications if they’ve been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 as well as information about quarantine and testing.
GuideSafe has been available to Alabama students since August 3. Curtis Carver, chief information officer for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said 1,800 users have downloaded the app. Sue Feldman, professor of health informatics at UAB, said one user had a positive test confirmed through the app.
“You can report a positive test to the app,” Feldman said. “He then alerts others who have been 6 feet away for 15 minutes. By checking the exposure box, you can see how many exposures you had in the last 14 days. “
GuideSafe is not a replacement for contact tracing performed by the Alabama Department of Public Health, Feldman said. It can help inform people who have unknowingly come into contact with a positive patient in the 14 days prior to testing.
“It’s the superpower of this app,” Carver said. “You don’t need to know a person’s name or location. You don’t need to know anything. The phone does it for you. “
These identities will not be shared with public health officials because the app does not store personal information, Feldman said. The app will only notify those who have been exposed.
If enough people download the app, it could become a powerful tool in controlling the spread of COVID-19, Carver said. This can strengthen the work of contact tracers, he said. Users will remain anonymous with each other and with the app, which works by generating a series of random codes to communicate.
“This app was designed to vigorously protect privacy while anonymously alerting a user to possible exposure to someone who will subsequently test positive for COVID-19,” Carver said. “Data privacy and user privacy permeates every aspect of the app.”
Carver said the app could be particularly useful in crowded environments, as it would identify people in close contact with an infected person, even those unknown to the patient.
“Do you want to go to a soccer game? Then you have to download this app, ”Carver said. “Do you want to go to a concert? Then you need to download this app. It doesn’t take anything. Be a hero, download the app and add it to your arsenal of tools to protect others. “
The GuideSafe application was developed with funding from the CARES law. Experts at UAB worked with Birmingham-based MotionMobs and the Alabama Department of Public Health to develop the technology. Alabama is one of the first states to offer this technology to the public, said Dr. Karen Landers, a physician for the Northern District of Alabama.
“We have to be stronger, and we have to be smarter, and this app will allow us to be just that,” Landers said.
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