Name of Researcher, Faculty, Department, Telephone & Email:
Reza Hedayati, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, reza.hedayatimajdaba@ucalgary.ca
Yang Liu, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, yang.liu5@cs.ucalgary.ca
Asif Mehmuda, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, asifali.mehmuda@ucalgary.ca
Sarah Shah, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, sarah.shah1@ucalgary.ca
Supervisors:
Mea Wang, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, (403) 220-6785, meawang@ucalgary.ca
Diwakar Krishnamurthy, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, (403) 220-8129, dkrishna@ucalgary.ca
Roman Shor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, (403) 210-7634, roman.shor@ucalgary.ca
Tyler Williamson, Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, (403) 210-6033, tyler.williamson@ucalgary.ca
Chris Carlson, Chief Information Officer, Brightsquid, 1-800-238-6503, chris.carlson@brightsquid.com
Title of Project:
Augmented Intelligence for COVID-19
Sponsor:
MITACS, IDEaS, Alberta Innovates
Ethics Approval:
Certificate # REB21-0023 (Expire Mar 5, 2022, annually renewable)
This consent form, a copy of which can be downloaded <here>, is only part of the process of informed consent. If you want more details about something mentioned here, or information not included here, you should feel free to ask. Please take the time to read this carefully and to understand any accompanying information.
The University of Calgary Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board has approved this research study. Participation is completely voluntary and confidential.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, tech industry is racing to develop apps as well as wearable devices to help people to trace contacts, to self-assess, and to self-monitor the development of COVID-19 cases. The oceans of data are mostly disconnected. Enlightened by data and empowered by cloud computing, the University of Calgary is conducting research to fuse COVID-19 related data from various sources on your mobile device with public data to provide you intuitive and personalized information on your risk of COVID-19 infection and guidance for self-monitoring and self-care. Th study also seeks deeper understanding of COVID-19 epidemic and proposes augment intelligence for preventing and controlling the outbreaks.
Upon installing the BrightShare app, you will have the option to enable or disable data sharing on the Features/Data Management screen. If you are interested in the “Personalized Recommendations” and “Risk of Exposure” features that is enabled by this research project, you now have the option to enable them, and this consent form will be displayed for you to review. By enabling either these two features and agreeing to this consent, the associated anonymous data will be shared with both Brightsquid and the University of Calgary research team for this joint research project on providing personalized COVID-19 information. The data will be owned by Brightsquid. Moreover, you can opt to share some or all of your data. If you are not interested, please feel free to bypass and you will still have access to the remaining features in the app.
Your participation is completely voluntary. You may return to the Features/Data Management screen any time to disable either “Personalized Recommendations” and “Risk of Exposure” feature at any time. The changes will be in effect immediately, so does the associated data sharing. However, previously shared data cannot be stripped away from the study because the anonymized data cannot be re-engineered to re-identify you.
All data will be anonymized before leaving your device for sharing. Only personal information will be retrained is your age and gender, along with an anonymized ID. The anonymized ID uniquely identifies your records, but no linkage to your personal information or login credential. You can opt to share some, all, or none of you data from health apps and wearables (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, respiration rate, blood oxygen, body measurements), self-reported symptoms (e.g., cough, fever, runny nose, etc), self-reported medical conditions (e.g., asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc), and other summary information (e.g., daily number of close contacts, daily assessment for exposure risks).
The anonymized data will only be accessible to researchers and supervisors listed in this consent form and Brightsquid, and will never be shown in public.
The app provides you a peace of mind on sharing anonymized data and assistants for self-care. This research project delivers all features in the app, including the personalized experience that requires anonymized data sharing from you. Thus, the benefits of personalized COVID-19 information and self-care recommendations are only available to participants in this study.
You can expect no risks or discomforts from this study. There is no risk of accidental data disclosure. There are no other risks or discomforts expected due to participation in this study. As we are working with anonymized information, even if we were to identify individuals who are upset, distressed, or disturbed that warrant medical attention, we would be unable to assist these individuals as we do not know their identity. However, we still estimate that the risk of finding such a person is incredibly low for this study.
The study will use only anonymized data (without any personal identifiers). All research data and records are owned by Brightsquid and will be maintained within the Brightsquid system. For this research project, Brightsquid shares the data with the University of Calgary research team to conduct this research. Only researchers and supervisors listed in this consent form and Brightsquid will have access to the information collected for the purpose of improving features in this app. Only group information will be summarized for any presentation or publication of results. The university research team may be linked the data with public data for better understanding of COVID-19 outbreaks and effectiveness of responses in our community. A sample of the anonymized data may be moved to University of Calgary servers for future research related to COVID-19 and similar epidemics.
If you have any further questions or want clarification regarding this research and/or your participation, please contact:
Dr. Mea Wang
Associate Professor
University of Calgary
(403) 220-6785, meawang@ucalgary.ca
and
Chris Carlson
Chief Information Officer
BrightSquid
1-800-238-6503, chris.carlson@brightsquid.com
If you have any concerns about the way you’ve been treated as a participant, please contact the Research Ethics Analyst, Research Services Office, University of Calgary at 403.220.6289 or 403.220.8640; email cfreb@ucalgary.ca. A copy of this consent form has been given to you to keep for your records and reference. The investigator has kept a copy of the consent form.
By agreeing to this consent, you indicate that 1) you understand to your satisfaction the information provided to you about your participation in this research project, and 2) you agree to participate in the research project.
In no way does this waive your legal rights nor release the investigators, sponsors, or involved institutions from their legal and professional responsibilities. You are free to withdraw from this research project at any time. You should feel free to ask for clarification or new information throughout your participation.
___________________________ Agree
___________________________ Disagree
