No abstract

Covid-19 pandemic has compelled countries to conduct contact tracing vigorously in order to curb the highly infectious virus from further spread. In this context, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has been broadly used, utilizing Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) for Close Contact Identification (CCI). However, many of the available solutions are not able to adhere to the guidelines provided by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention which are: (1) Distance requirement of within 6-feet (~2 meters) and (2) Minimum 15-minutes duration for CCI. In providing some closure to the gap, we proposed a novel approach of utilizing: (1) Low calibrated transmission power (Tx) and (2) Number of signal captures. Our proposed approach is to lowly calibrate Tx so that when distance is at 2 meters between users, number signal capture gets lower as the chipset’s smallest RSSI sensitivity value has been reached. In this paper, complete experimentation for Proof of Concept (POC) and Pilot test conducted are demonstrated. Results obtained shows that the accuracy for POC utilizing signal captures for 2 0.3 m distance is at: (1) 71.43% for 5 users and (2) 70.69% for 9 users. While so, accuracy for the Pilot test when considering CCI on individual case-basis is at 95% for 5 users. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2022-SPER-013 Full Text: PDF

Background Poor communication at the time of patient handover is recognized as a root cause of a considerable proportion of preventable deaths. Despite several advantages, the Patient Care Report (PCR) implementation may include insufficient details for demonstrating the functional status of the patients during the actual response which can further prolong the response time. Healthcare entities have been emphasizing the need to implement e-PCR systems. This systematic review aimed to examine the impact of e-PCR systems on reducing response time of prehospital care. Methods Literature search was carried out using the relevant search terms and keywords with inclusion and exclusion criteria. N=6 researchers that focused on the impact of e-PCR systems on reducing response time of prehospital medical care were included within this review. Results The findings indicated that ePCR implementation led to prominent improvements in the quality of the care services provided by the healthcare organisation. Additionally, ePCR reduces the response rate by data standardization. Conclusion The implementation of e-PCR systems ensures the availability of records and automates reporting on given quality metrics. Moreover, the implementation of e-PCR systems also improved response time and increased the out of hospital rates of survival. However, fear of increasing the ambulance run time, compromise on the availability of ambulance, and challenges in integration with the existing information systems implemented within the hospitals, were some of the most common challenging situations associated with implementing e-PCR systems.

No abstract

Many contact tracing solutions developed by countries around the globe in containing the Covid-19 pandemic are in the area of location-based tracing, which does not enable them to identify close contacts accurately. As location-based tracing implementations continuous on, the results have not been as effective as intended. Thus, in providing some closure, this study will dissect the need for close contact tracing solutions for the pandemic by providing a comprehensive contact tracing characteristic framework (CCTCF) for Covid-19, which will help authorities toward better pandemic management. In this study, CCTCF for Covid-19 was constructed by applying several methods. Using Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome (PICO) as the framework, methods conducted were: (1) Case study to analyze the contact tracing systems in 30 countries; (2) Systematic literature review (n=2056) regarding solutions’ elements, (3) Thematic analysis for characteristics framework development. A total of 25 items were obtained for CCTCF, along with valuable insights that necessitate close contact tracing for the pandemic. Results from CCTCF have also shown that the best contact tracing solution for Covid-19 is bi-directional human-to-human close contact tracing, which uses a retrospective approach and is able to identify the source as well as groups of infection using a personal area network (PAN). Doi: 10.28991/esj-2022-SPER-019 Full Text: PDF