Project R-10897

Testing & optimising a mobile app in Belgium for the prevention and management of COVID-19 infections (Research)

This project aims to develop and test a digital contact mapping tool (the 'COVered App') to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the overarching contact tracing strategy in Flanders and Belgium. The COVered app goes beyond Belgium's current approach by combining GPS data, which records locations, with BLE technology to map contacts. It allows exchange of care-related information between eHealth and CoZo.be (Collaboratief Zorgplatform /Collaborative Care Platform), including the national laboratory results server. This project includes 3 work packages that will be simultaneously executed: 1. Open beta testing in 20,000 residents of Ghent to assess and optimise the app's functionality and capability to detect contacts, super spreading, and hotspots; 2. Legal and ethical challenges to propose a new legal framework to answer health law, ethical and privacy issues; 3. Privacy & information security to determine requirements and create guidance for app development. This grant will enable the COVered app to generate conclusive scientific evidence about Belgian tools for digital contact mapping, thereby providing a scientific basis for the Belgian government to consider in the current and future pandemics.

22 May 2020 - 31 May 2021