by Vicky Cerino, UNMC Communications | May 18, 2020
The University of Nebraska launched a new mobile app, 1-Check COVID, to help guide the screening of large groups of individuals concerned that they might have COVID-19 and to help first responders and other health care providers determine a person’s likelihood of carrying the disease.
Launched for iOS phones, that app now is available on Google Play for anyone on Android phones.
- Download for Android at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.unmc.covid19screener.
- Download for iOS at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/1-check-covid/id1504328584.
“We’re pleased to make this resource available to Android users,” said Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). “By expanding the platform, we can continue to help our Nebraska communities and beyond navigate important symptoms of the coronavirus.”
The app, he said, helps reassure the worried well, as well as assist public safety teams responding to concerns and guide individuals who may have symptoms but are unsure what to do or how to share their concerns with others.
The iOS version already has topped more than 60,000 images and 9,800 downloads and received favorable App Store ratings and reviews.
1-Check COVID enables the users to privately answer a series of questions and assess their risk of having COVID-19. Based on the user’s input, the screening app will issue a “low-risk,” “urgent risk” or “emergent risk” assessment and guide the individual user and up to six family and friends toward possible next steps specific to their needs.
The steps range from continued monitoring of symptoms, contacting one’s health care clinic or public health department to determine whether testing is needed, or going to the nearest emergency facility and/or calling 911. The app also helps the user, if they wish, to share their COVID current risk profile with their health care professionals, employers, families and others if they desire to do so.
Although not a diagnostic tool, 1-Check COVID will provide appropriate advice based on the user’s symptoms, recent travel, geographic region (based on the ZIP code) and medical history. Developers say the screening app will enable individuals to make thoughtful decisions about when, or if, they should seek medical attention and allow them to immediately share the results only if they so choose.
The app was developed by medical and public health experts at UNMC, and computer science and computer engineering students within the Walter Scott, Jr. Scholarship program at UNO.
The team included Rod Markin, M.D., PhD, associate vice chancellor for business development at UNMC and director of UNeTech; the UNMC Department of Emergency Medicine’s Thang Nguyen and Wes Zeger, D.O.; and UNO’s Harnoor Singh, director of student development for the Scott Scholars Program, as well as UNO Scott Scholars Grayson Stanton, Keegan Brown and Carly Cameron.
