Using technology to deal with the challenge of keeping the workplace safe during a global pandemic.

Huge swathes of the economy have been shut down or severely impacted due to the global pandemic. In an attempt to continue doing business, many organisations are attempting to provide a safe environment for their employees by regular mass testing. This strategy comes at a significant cost to the business and is inconvenient for employees.

Our wave

EMITTO app helps employers assess the risk of their employees being exposed to COVID-19 by allowing employees to monitor a number of Covid-19 risk factors including their vital signs, symptoms, underlying health conditions, demographic information and social interactions. The information stored within the app can then be anonymously shared prior to entering the workplace.

The app includes an integration with Binah.ai, an AI powered health monitoring tool, to test their respiratory rate and blood oxygen saturation. It assesses symptom based risk by allowing employees to take a regular health survey which uses an algorithm based on a model developed by The Weizmann Institute. Additionally, employees can opt into contact tracing which was built using the mobile device’s GPS functionality and integrated with a network model created by Case Western Reserve University.

Built for agility

The nature of the pandemic was fast paced as scientists raced to understand the virus, how it spread and what the underlying risk factors were. As technologists, it was our responsibility to ensure the app could be rapidly changed to keep pace with emerging information. To achieve this we chose to build on React Native, allowing us to rollout to iOS and Android quickly. Our development was supported by a comprehensive suite of tests, running on every build through our MSApp Centre CI. This gave us confidence in the stability of the product as we rapidly added or adjusted its capabilities.

Our impact

Employers and facilities can optimise their testing resources, using the information shared by the employee to focus on individuals who may be at a higher risk of having contracted COVID-19.