Canberra researchers have developed a new web app that pulls together COVID-19 alerts and exposure locations from across the country.
Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Queensland created the app as part of the COVID‐19 Real‐time Information System for Preparedness and Epidemic Response (CRISPER) project, which makes exposure locations from all states and territories available in the one place.
The app is accessible on desktops and smartphones and users can enable a function that would alert them to things like new cases or exposure locations in certain areas.
“The app provides a one-stop shop to review COVID-19 exposure sites and the time of exposure as identified by health departments,” said ANU epidemiologist Dr Meru Sheel.
“Having a one-stop shop can help speed up the process of contact tracing for epidemiologists and build outbreak mud maps to help understand transmission patterns.”
CRISPER has funded a number of other COVID-19 tools including a national summary dashboard, interactive mapping tool for NSW and an automatic alert system.
Project lead Professor Colleen Lau said CRISPER’s projects could be improved with better access to real-time, official health data.
“Each state and territory’s website is structured differently and it can be difficult to find information quickly, so the CRISPER tools help by automatically updating information from health departments across the nation and making them more accessible, said Professor Lau.
“Our biggest challenge has been access to live official national data in a ready-to-use format. We could make our tools even more useful if we had better access to data.”
CRISPER’s projects have been designed for use by the general public as well as health officials, epidemiologists and GPs.
