Continuing Brightsquid’s commitment to support the healthcare community, the company supported students at the University of Calgary to launch a mobile app that aggregates COVID-19 health data to deliver personalized recommendations on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. The app, Brightshare, is funded partially by the MITACS Accelerate Program, and was built by the team at uCalgary to provide patients a central view of their COVID-19 risk, symptoms, and health status to help limit the spread of COVID-19 and ease the burden of management on the healthcare system.
Built to empower the entire healthcare community to work together against COVID-19, Brightshare turns patients’ health data into actionable information. The service aggregates data from health apps on the user’s mobile device (including self-report symptom data collected daily). This aggregation makes it possible to assess data against early-warning indicators of COVID-19 infection, and alert users of proximity to known hotspots for the disease.
Research has shown that the data from COVID-19 apps (E.G., ABTraceTogether), health apps (vitals apps such as Apple Healthkit, Google Fit), and wearable devices (E.G. FitBit) provides critical and essential evidence to predict outbreaks and early signs of COVID-19 infection. Until the launch of Brightshare, aggregating all of that information in a way patients can easily put to use has been a challenge.
Brightshare unleashes the power of data from multiple sources by using machine learning to assess aggregated data against early-warning indicators of COVID-19 infection. Patients can then use the data and recommendations to collaborate with their healthcare team on remote triaging, diagnosis, and treatment. The Artificial Intelligence built into the Brightshare application is able to improve recommendations the more it is used by patients.
By using the application, patients help refine the healthcare system’s collective knowledge about population health and COVID-19 treatment. The data and recommendations created by this community focused project can help inform public health measures, primary care, and future pandemic response.
This consensual and privacy-compliant use of data unites patients, healthcare providers, and COVID-19 researchers to combat COVID-19 together. Brightsquid protects the privacy and security of patient data collected by the app using proven privacy-compliant technology that has been assessed for privacy compliance. The data is anonymized and made usable to researchers who can assess efficacy of recommendations and track Brightshare’s impact on reducing the spread of COVID-19.
To participate in this collective research project (ethics approval details) and support your health through the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, download your version of the Brightshare mobile from the Apple Store, you’ll need your Brightsquid login information to get started.