Institute of Medical Systems Biology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
Department of Clinical Chemistry, University Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
J Med Internet Res. 2021 Jun 7;23(6):e27348. doi: 10.2196/27348.
Overcoming the COVID-19 crisis requires new ideas and strategies for online communication of personal medical information and patient empowerment. Rapid testing of a large number of subjects is essential for monitoring and delaying the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in order to mitigate the pandemic's consequences. People who do not know that they are infected may not stay in quarantine and, thus, risk infecting others. Unfortunately, the massive number of COVID-19 tests performed is challenging for both laboratories and the units that conduct throat swabs and communicate the results.
The goal of this study was to reduce the communication burden for health care professionals. We developed a secure and easy-to-use tracking system to report COVID-19 test results online that is simple to understand for the tested subjects as soon as these results become available. Instead of personal calls, the system updates the status and the results of the tests automatically. This aims to reduce the delay when informing testees about their results and, consequently, to slow down the virus spread.
The application in this study draws on an existing tracking tool. With this open-source and browser-based online tracking system, we aim to minimize the time required to inform the tested person and the testing units (eg, hospitals or the public health care system). The system can be integrated into the clinical workflow with very modest effort and avoids excessive load to telephone hotlines.
The test statuses and results are published on a secured webpage, enabling regular status checks by patients; status checks are performed without the use of smartphones, which has some importance, as smartphone usage diminishes with age. Stress tests and statistics show the performance of our software. CTest is currently running at two university hospitals in Germany-University Hospital Ulm and University Hospital Tübingen-with thousands of tests being performed each week. Results show a mean number of 10 (SD 2.8) views per testee.
CTest runs independently of existing infrastructures, aims at straightforward integration, and aims for the safe transmission of information. The system is easy to use for testees. QR (Quick Response) code links allow for quick access to the test results. The mean number of views per entry indicates a reduced amount of time for both health care professionals and testees. The system is quite generic and can be extended and adapted to other communication tasks.
克服 COVID-19 危机需要新的理念和策略，以便在线交流个人医疗信息和增强患者权能。对大量受检者进行快速检测对于监测和延迟 SARS-CoV-2 的传播至关重要，以减轻大流行的后果。不知道自己被感染的人可能不会被隔离，从而有可能感染他人。不幸的是，进行大量的 COVID-19 检测对实验室和进行咽拭子检测并传达检测结果的单位来说都是一项挑战。
本研究的目的是减轻医疗保健专业人员的沟通负担。我们开发了一个安全易用的在线报告 COVID-19 检测结果的跟踪系统，受检者在获得检测结果时可以轻松理解。该系统通过自动更新状态和测试结果，而不是通过个人电话来通知检测者，从而减少通知检测者结果的延迟，从而减缓病毒的传播。
本研究中的应用程序利用了现有的跟踪工具。使用这个开源的基于浏览器的在线跟踪系统，我们旨在最大限度地减少通知受检者和检测单位（例如医院或公共医疗保健系统）所需的时间。该系统可以通过非常小的努力集成到临床工作流程中，避免给电话热线带来过度的负担。
测试状态和结果发布在一个安全的网页上，使患者可以定期检查状态；无需使用智能手机进行状态检查，这很重要，因为随着年龄的增长，智能手机的使用会减少。压力测试和统计数据显示了我们软件的性能。CTest 目前在德国的两所大学医院-乌尔姆大学医院和图宾根大学医院-运行，每周进行数千次测试。结果显示，每位受检者的平均浏览量为 10 次（标准差为 2.8）。
CTest 独立于现有基础设施运行，旨在实现简单集成，并确保信息的安全传输。系统易于受检者使用。快速响应（QR）码链接允许快速访问检测结果。每个条目的平均浏览量表明医疗保健专业人员和受检者的时间都有所减少。该系统非常通用，可以扩展和适应其他通信任务。
