Indore civic body's app to help monitor asymptomatic COVID-19 patients at home

Indore 311 is a mobile application developed for Municipal Corporation in Indore to take care of different issues faced by civic body to smoothen the administration process in the city. Currently, the app has been downloaded by lakhs of people living in the city.

Due to the increasing COVID-19 cases in the Indore city, the administration started working in the direction where they can decrease the risk of more people getting infected from the disease while keeping the mortality rate on check. For the same the city’s Indore 311 app has been equipped with a new feature – “Home Isolation”. This helps to monitor the people from their homes, who are either asymptomatic or are suspected of COVID-19. This kind of improvisation in the app has been made keeping the Indian Medical Association norms and guidelines in mind. This feature has been specially designed for COVID-19 asymptomatic patients or the ones who are suspected of having the disease.

The COVID-19 team will be able to monitor the clinical parameters of patients while they are in home isolation using this app. When sending homes, people are provided with pulse oximeter. This way, patients can monitor their oxygen rate and heart rate using this device. The readings can then be added into the app which can then be accessed by COVID-19 team.

The app comes with a pre-set questionnaire which either the patient or person taking care of the patient have to fill up on daily basis. The information can be something like entering daily temperature, any issues related to breathing, or common symptoms of COVID-19.

The app offers a 24-hour doctor available service to the patients. This way they will be able to stay in constant touch with the patients through the medium of video conferencing or say “telemedicine”. They will be able to quickly check for symptoms and deliver treatment immediately.

The team of doctors at IMA control room keeps checking the patients constantly and a rapid response team has been kept on standby mode to take the patients to the hospital in case of emergency. Again, the app comes with a red button which the patient can tap-on in case he or she needs immediate medical help.

Lastly, the app also keeps a check on the location of the patient. So if he or she fails to follow the medical advice and steps outside their home just for 100 meters, an alarm will start ringing at the control room of IMA. They will track down the patient immediately through the GPS and the patient will be brought back home.

The news about the 311 app was also featured on New Indian Express, Outlook India Magazine, Livemint, ANI News, Amar Ujala