Problem Statement
Every day, many people across the United States are being tested for coronavirus diseases. Many healthcare facilities have to send COVID results to a patient portal manually. Unfortunately, these results may take days to obtain since many facilities are short-staffed and thus patients may take up to 10 days to receive their results. Once received, users usually print results through the patient portal or take a screenshot. Results on paper can easily get misplaced, and pictures from a person’s phone may become stolen and edited with someone else’s name, which causes a security issue.
The problem is that there is currently no mobile app that gives people easy access to their COVID results and proof of the COVID vaccination. This problem affects people who have taken the COVID test. More specifically, those who need to travel, go to work, or school because instructions indicate they must quarantine until they receive their results. It also affects those that need proof to attend an event.
This app will be beneficial because it will be a less time-consuming way to get a hold of your results. When traveling, this can make the process easier. This app can also be useful to other companies and establishments that would prefer to see negative COVID results or proof of the vaccination before entering the compound. Difficulties when implementing the app include security and compliance as there will be a significant amount of sensitive information on the app, which can be a target for many cybercriminals. HIPPA is a compliance issue because of the sensitive information included within the app. The mobile application would be free to all users.
Significance of the Problem
Paper vaccination certificates are among the tools that have stayed persistent for over a century from their initial development by the health agencies. During the 1880s smallpox pandemic, several learning institutions required students and teachers to present vaccination cards (Esparza et al., 2020). The World Health Organization introduced the yellow card, which was an international travel certificate during the 1960 yellow fever pandemic (Ardila, 2019). Travelers presently still need to carry their cards in some situations.
Many countries across the world, including the United States, are currently distributing vaccines for the COVID-19 virus. A majority of states would require an entry ticket which would be appropriate if it exists in the digital state. Numerous airlines, such as the United, JetBlue, and Lufthansa, would experience effective operation with the use of the app for verifying the passenger’s virus examination outcomes and vaccination (Ardila, 2019). The proposed app is likely to be essential to employers, schools, holiday camps, and entertainment centers. The app will improve the containment measures of the spread and control of the virus.
The development of the electronic vaccination and the testing app would positively affect the strategies to control the COVID-19 pandemic while also enhancing the economic restoration. The app would initiate the reopening of learning institutions, such as schools, colleges, and universities. A majority of consumers would also have peace of mind since the app would introduce an easy method for such areas as ships, sports grounds, and movie halls to permit entry to only the individuals who have received the coronavirus vaccination.
The marketability of the app would likely be difficult for various groups of society. There would be disparities in the level of adoption of the app, particularly among the people with limited access to online verification systems to travel to their preferred places. Other groups, such as the Civil liberties professionals, have an opinion that the innovation would establish an intrusive platform of social manipulation from the private actors, such as hotels, who would decide on individuals’ accessibility to their facilities. Therefore, introducing the app would enhance economic recovery among other benefits despite the minor challenges related to the system.
Implementation and Plausibility of the Project
The implementation of the project may face various challenges. According to scholars and practitioners, healthcare technologies, such as the vaccine app, create a potential threat to privacy because such devices can substantially enlarge amounts of personally identifiable information about a patient (Paglialonga et al., 2019). The program creates anxiety about the right of individuals to frequent surveillance (Paglialonga et al., 2019). However, the establishment of the project may sound ironic to some members of society who would feel excluded. It would be more appropriate to focus on the equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines in most parts of the world before investing in how to use an app to confirm the vaccination status of some individuals.
Overview of the Solution
The proposed solution for this issue would be to create a mobile application that would allow users to have easy access to their COVID results and proof of the COVID vaccination. The app will be simple and show whether you tested negative or positive for the Coronavirus. As for proof of the vaccine, it will show up on the app like the vaccination card you received onsite. The app will be available for all android devices.
Solution Application of the Vaccination App
The effective use of the app would first require integration into the existing system through sensitization of the health care professionals and clients on how to access the coronavirus-related data. The app will undergo tests for several aspects including features of the users, device abilities, education standards, and the age of the clients (Lins et al., 2019). These steps would then pave the way for the total adoption of the app after reliable outcomes from the pilot study.
References
Ardila, J. P. C. (2019). Facilitating automated compliance checking in the safety-critical context.Electronic Communications of the EASST, 78, 1-20.
Esparza, J., Lederman, S., Nitsche, A., & Damaso, C. R. (2020). Early smallpox vaccine manufacturing in the United States: introduction of the “animal vaccine” in 1870, establishment of “vaccine farms”, and the beginnings of the vaccine industry. Vaccine, 38(30), 4773-4779.
Lins, S., Schneider, S., Szefer, J., Ibraheem, S., & Sunyaev, A. (2019). Designing monitoring systems for continuous certification of cloud services: Deriving meta-requirements and design guidelines.Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 44(1), 25.
Paglialonga, A., Pinciroli, F., & Tognola, G. (2019). Apps for hearing healthcare: trends, challenges, and potential opportunities. In E. Saunders (Ed.), Tele-Audiology and the optimization of hearing healthcare delivery (pp. 161-195). IGI Global.