New tool to assist doctors and authorities in acquisition of Corona infection data

© pressefoto / freepik

Knowledge about the exact corona infection figures is an important cornerstone for developing effective measures to contain the virus. However, inconsistent transmission channels, potential breaks in the transmission chain and a large number of actors involved make it difficult to transfer data quickly and accurately to key players. Here the “Infektionsmelde- und -informationssystem (IMIS)” offers a solution. Two master students of computer science at Saarland University are involved in the development.

The project, which emerged last week from the federal government’s hackathon “WirVsVirus”, is intended to bundle and accelerate the registration of infection cases. It will make possible to document, track and evaluate the complete course of a corona infection from first suspicion to diagnosis and registration.

The process of tracking an infection case with the new system would proceed as follows: If a patient suspects that he or she has been infected with the coronavirus, he or she contacts his or her doctor or the hotline of the responsible health authority. They then enter the patient’s data in the information system, where symptoms, infection chains and previous illnesses can also be entered. If a suspicious case is registered with a physician, the information system automatically notifies the relevant health authority. Both health authorities and doctors have the option of ordering a corona test directly via the system.

Each entered case automatically receives a unique ID in the form of a QR code generated by the new system. If a test is ordered, the patient can be easily identified at a test site using the QR code. The staff at the testing site only need to scan the code to obtain all necessary information – there is no need for a repeated query of personal data. If a patient has been tested, this is noted in the information system and the number of the sample taken is linked to the corresponding patient ID. The sample is then sent to a laboratory as usual. After the sample has been evaluated in the laboratory, the laboratory enters the result and the sample number in the information system, which automatically informs the health authorities, the physician and the patient about the result.

Both the Robert Koch Institute and the health authorities would have the possibility of exporting and evaluating the most current case numbers via a secure access. “The enormous time savings during the reporting process would ensure that important resources would be freed up, especially at health offices, which could then be better used elsewhere,” says Jonas Cirotzki, one of the Saarbrücken students involved.

A team of about 20 volunteers continues the development of the IMIS information system even after the “WirVsVirus”- Hackathon.

Questiones can be directed at:
Andrey Eganov: 0681 / 500 66 72 0
imis-team@gmx.de

More Information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIIlMh3Lbsc
https://devpost.com/software/imis-infektions-melde-und-informations-system

Prototype:
https://imis-prototyp.de/

Background Saarland Informatics Campus:

800 scientists and about 2000 students from 81 nations make the Saarland Informatics Campus (SIC) one of the leading locations for computer science in Germany and Europe. Five world-renowned research institutes, namely the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science, the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, the Center for Bioinformatics and the Cluster for “Multimodal Computing and Interaction” as well as Saarland University with three departments and 18 degree programs cover the entire spectrum of computer science.

Editor:
Philipp Zapf-Schramm
Competence Center Computer Science
Saarland Informatics Campus
Phone: +49 681 302-70741
E-Mail: pzapf@mmci.uni-saarland.de