Agile Requirements Engineering and Software Planning for a Digital Health Platform to Engage the Effects of Isolation Caused by Social Distancing: Case Study

Abstract

Background Social distancing and shielding measures have been put in place to reduce social interaction and slow the transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). For older people, self-isolation presents particular challenges for mental health and social relationships. As time progresses, continued social distancing could have a compounding impact on these concerns. Objective This project aims to provide a tool for older people and their families and peers to improve their well-being and health during and after regulated social distancing. First, we will evaluate the tool’s feasibility, acceptability, and usability to encourage positive nutrition, enhance physical activity, and enable virtual interaction while social distancing. Second, we will be implementing the app to provide an online community to assist families and peer groups in maintaining contact with older people using goal setting. Anonymized data from the app will be aggregated with other real-world data sources to develop a machine learning algorithm to improve the identification of patients with COVID-19 and track for real time use by health systems. Methods Development of this project is occurring at the time of publication, and therefore, a case study design was selected to provide a systematic means of capturing software engineering in progress. The app development framework for software design was based on agile methods. The evaluation of the app’s feasibility, acceptability and usability shall be conducted using Public Health England's guidance on evaluating digital health products, Bandura’s model of health promotion, the Reach Effectiveness Adoption Implementation Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework and the Nonadoption, Abandonment and Challenges to the Scale-up, Spread and Suitability (NASSS) framework. Results Making use of a pre-existing software framework for health behavior change, a proof of concept was developed, and a multistage app development and deployment for the solution was created. Grant submissions to fund the project and study execution have been sought at the time of publication, and prediscovery iteration of the solution has begun. Ethical approval for a feasibility study design is being sought. Conclusions This case study lays the foundations for future app development to combat mental and societal issues arising from social distancing measures. The app will be tested and evaluated in future studies to allow continuous improvement of the app. This novel contribution will provide an evidence-based exemplar for future app development in the space of social isolation and loneliness.

Health Chatbots for Fighting COVID-19: a Scoping Review

“…Additionally, our review showed that health chatbots were used in multiple domains. The most prevalent domains were preventive care and risk communication (n=3) ( 3 , 9 , 12 ), public health surveillance by health officials (n=2) ( 2 , 10 ), Telehealth (n=2) ( 1 , 11 ), workplace health and safety (n=1) ( 13 ), and care of the elderly (n=1) ( 14 ).…”

“…Technical features such as speech synthesis from text, data visualization, conversational ability, customization were all vital additions to chatbot applications ( 1 - 3 , 10 - 13 ). Chatbots can be launched from a smartphone-based application (apps) such as LINE, WhatsApp and Telegram ( 10 , 14 ); social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter ( 3 ); or the developer or service providers’ websites ( 2 , 13 ). Likewise, chatbots can be standalone apps such as the one proposed by Battineni et al ( 1 ).…”

“…For example, a decision was made to exclude any article if it solely mentioned chatbots as an example of emerging technologies for combating COVID-19 without any further information or descriptions of health chatbots. This ultimately led to the elimination of 83 articles and left a total of 9 included articles ( 1 - 3 , 9 - 14 ).…”

Consequences for the Elderly After COVID-19 Isolation: FEaR (Frail Elderly amid Restrictions)

“…Physical frailty can be resolved through educational videos and recorded physical activity sessions (Angulo et al, 2020 ). Actually, online technologies are the most valuable support systems, but have to be appropriately planned for older minds (Meinert et al, 2020 ). Of note, prioritized interventions should be established for low and middle income countries where family dynamics are different, a large number of older adults are illiterate, and proper health care assistance is limited (Lloyd-Sherlock et al, 2020 ).…”

Considerations for diagnostic COVID-19 tests

“…this was really the first time in the history of acute infectious research where ai and machine learning were prominently exploited from the initial discovery of the pathogen onward. in China and elsewhere, new ai-powered smartphone applications (apps) are used to monitor the health of individuals and track the geographical spread of the virus 174 . such apps aim to predict which populations and communities are most susceptible to the negative effects of an infectious disease outbreak, to enable patients to receive real-time information from their medical providers, to provide people with updates about their medical condition without them having to visit a hospital in person and to notify individuals of potential infection hotspots so those areas can be avoided.…”