University launches symptom tracking app
The CMICH Healthscreen app will provide health screening and case tracking resources for students, faculty and staff.
The Central Michigan University symptom monitoring application CMICH Healthscreen launched on Tuesday, July 27, for all students, faculty and staff to safely monitor their health and to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus.
The app offers health screening and case tracking resources. According to the Fired Up for Fall website, faculty, staff and students are required to self-screen each day for COVID-19 symptoms before coming to campus.
In the health screening portion of the app, individuals are asked if they had close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 14 days.
The Center for Disease Control defines close contact with a COVID-19 positive person as having been within six feet of the individual for 15 minutes or longer and 48 hours prior to when the infected individual first started experiencing symptoms.
Next, app users are asked if they are currently experiencing shortness of breath, cough, fever or any other symptoms related to COVID-19.
If a faculty, staff or student responds ‘NO’ to both questions, they receive a green check that indicates they are safe to leave their residence and move about campus, said John Veilleux, vice president for University Communications. If they indicate ‘YES’ to one or both of the questions, they are asked not to come to campus and will be contacted by CMU Health. Responses to the questions are attached to the Global ID of the respondent.
A screenshot of the CMICH Healthscreen app, which has health screening and case tracking resources for students, faculty and staff during the pandemic.
In the case of a ‘YES’ answer to one of the pre-screening questions, the respondent’s email, phone number, and their answers to the pre-screening questions are forwarded to CMU Health. A member of the clinic staff will follow up with the respondent to advise them on the next steps based on what information is uncovered.
As of now, 70% of the ‘YES’ responses have happened accidentally by the respondent, said Veilleux. Only clinic staff and authorized Office of Information and Technology staff have access to the data. Clinic staff must follow up on all ‘YES’ responses and OIT staff act as 'data custodian' in protecting and administering the data in accordance with the University Data Stewardship Policy.
The case tracking resources portion shows the weekly number and the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 on campus and is updated every week.
This portion also offers a variety of videos, guidelines and tips to help prevent contact with the virus or a carrier.
“This app is another layer of steps we are taking to provide a healthy and safe environment for our faculty, staff and students,” Veilleux said. “It also keeps us in compliance with the Governor’s executive orders, but more importantly it adds to the overall efforts we are taking to intentionally make our campus safe for our community.”
CMICH Healthscreen was developed by staff in the Office of Information Technology and is available for download on the app store for all smart devices.
More information about the health screen app can be found on the Fired Up for Fall website.
