As Atlanta braces itself for the coronavirus outbreak, several local startups and companies are using their tech for good to fight the virus.
Acoer, an Atlanta-based developer of blockchain-enabled apps, was one of the first startups in Atlanta to focus its technologies on limiting the spread of coronavirus. In February, Acoer built and released a coronavirus tracker to the public. The tracker uses the HashLog data visualization engine to gather real-time information on the coronavirus.
The Coronavirus HashLog dashboard interacts with Hedera Hashgraph, a Dallas-based distributed public ledger, to give researchers, scientists and journalists information on how the virus spreads and trends over time. The tracker uses public data, including data from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, both of which have been keeping a close eye on the dangerous outbreak and conducting a majority of the research on the virus.
Last week, Atlanta-based SaaS company Rimidi announced efforts to contain COVID-19 and reduce risk to providers and patients by releasing a patient-reported outcomes survey app. Rimidi is in an ongoing collaboration with the CDC and will continue to update the app with the latest CDC guidelines on the virus.
The app is in expedited beta testing by select U.S. health systems operating in the regions at the greatest risk for an outbreak, according to a news release. The company plans to release the app for general availability before the end of March.
“One of the greatest challenges in China and across other countries that faced early COVID-19 outbreaks has been hospital-based transmission,” said Lucienne Ide, founder of Rimidi, in a statement. “With the app, we can help keep potentially infectious individuals from exposing other patients or staff in the healthcare system in waiting rooms, emergency rooms, or triage before they are identified and separated.”
Rimidi isn't the only startup in the Atlanta health care space taking on the coronavirus challenge.
ExamMed, a health care tech platform that allows providers to conduct virtual visits with patients, announced last week it would offer its services to U.S. providers free of charge for three months.
CEO of ExamMed Faraz Zubairi said he’s allowing anyone in the health care industry —from doctors to providers to nursing homes to hospitals — to use the platform for free. He said he is open to providing the platform for free to providers internationally and is talking to partners about doing so, but would need to comply with different privacy laws in other countries, which could take time.
“This offer is open to everybody and anybody in the healthcare industry (in the U.S.),” he said. “It’s the right thing to do.”
Zubairi told Atlanta Inno he made the decision following the increase in anxiety around the world about the virus and the announcement that two confirmed cases reached Atlanta.
“Being an Atlanta-based company, we really felt we wanted to do something to calm anxiety and give doctors and hospitals whatever resources we can,” he said.
Atlanta-based public health technology provider InductiveHealth Informatics released a COVID-19 analytic pipeline for its genomic computing platform on Monday. The pipeline is designed to enable widely-available testing for the novel coronavirus based on whole genome sequencing, according to a news release.
Developed three years ago, the InductiveHealth platform is designed to address gaps in the use of WGS for clinicians and epidemiologists during a disease outbreak.
Laboratories with WGS tools that are interested in performing COVID-19 WGS testing can start using InductiveHealth’s COVID-19 pipeline by onboarding the platform here.
According to InductiveHealth CEO Matthew Dollacker, the company hopes to respond to an urgent need for broadly-deployed, accurate diagnostic tests for COVID-19 after seeing first-hand the trouble that the CDC had with polymerase chain reaction-based tests for the novel coronavirus.
Atlanta has seen a number of closures and precautions taken due to the virus. On Tuesday, Fulton County Schools --- the main school district for the city of Atlanta --- closed after a teacher tested positive for the coronavirus and had contact with several students and staff.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines has barred all flights from Atlanta to Italy until the end of April and has made significate changes to flights because of the virus.
Students at Georgia State University and Kennesaw State University have created online petitions asking officials to switch to online courses amid the outbreak.
To date, the state of Georgia has six confirmed cases and 11 presumptive positive cases of coronavirus.
For a list of closures happening around Atlanta, click here.
