Overview of Technologies Implemented During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Technologies have been extensively implemented to provide health care services for all types of clinical conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. While several reviews have been conducted regarding technologies used during the COVID-19 pandemic, they were limited by focusing either on a specific technology (or features) or proposed rather than implemented technologies. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to provide an overview of technologies, as reported in the literature, implemented during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) Extension for Scoping Reviews. Studies were retrieved by searching 8 electronic databases, checking the reference lists of included studies and relevant reviews (backward reference list checking), and checking studies that cited included studies (forward reference list checking). The search terms were chosen based on the target intervention (ie, technologies) and the target disease (ie, COVID-19). We included English publications that focused on technologies or digital tools implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide health-related services regardless of target health condition, user, or setting. Two reviewers independently assessed the eligibility of studies and extracted data from eligible papers. We used a narrative approach to synthesize extracted data. RESULTS: Of 7374 retrieved papers, 126 were deemed eligible. Telemedicine was the most common type of technology (107/126, 84.9%) implemented in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the most common mode of telemedicine was synchronous (100/108, 92.6%). The most common purpose of the technologies was providing consultation (75/126, 59.5%), followed by following up with patients (45/126, 35.7%), and monitoring their health status (22/126, 17.4%). Zoom (22/126, 17.5%) and WhatsApp (12/126, 9.5%) were the most commonly used videoconferencing and social media platforms, respectively. Both health care professionals and health consumers were the most common target users (103/126, 81.7%). The health condition most frequently targeted was COVID-19 (38/126, 30.2%), followed by any physical health conditions (21/126, 16.7%), and mental health conditions (13/126, 10.3%). Technologies were web-based in 84.1% of the studies (106/126). Technologies could be used through 11 modes, and the most common were mobile apps (86/126, 68.3%), desktop apps (73/126, 57.9%), telephone calls (49/126, 38.9%), and websites (45/126, 35.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Technologies played a crucial role in mitigating the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. We did not find papers describing the implementation of other technologies (eg, contact-tracing apps, drones, blockchain) during the first wave. Furthermore, technologies in this review were used for other purposes (eg, drugs and vaccines discovery, social distancing, and immunity passport). Future research on studies on these technologies and purposes is recommended, and further reviews are required to investigate technologies implemented in subsequent waves of the pandemic.

Health Apps for Combating COVID-19: Descriptive Review and Taxonomy.

BACKGROUND: Mobile phone apps have been leveraged to combat the spread of COVID-19. However, little is known about these technologies' characteristics, technical features, and various applications in health care when responding to this public health crisis. The lack of understanding has led developers and governments to make poor choices about apps' designs, which resulted in creating less useful apps that are overall less appealing to consumers due to their technical flaws. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to identify, analyze, and categorize health apps related to COVID-19 that are currently available for consumers in app stores; in particular, it focuses on exploring their key technical features and classifying the purposes that these apps were designed to serve. METHODS: A review of health apps was conducted using the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. The Apple Store and Google Play were searched between April 20 and September 11, 2020. An app was included if it was dedicated for this disease and was listed under the health and medical categories in these app stores. The descriptions of these apps were extracted from the apps' web pages and thematically analyzed via open coding to identify both their key technical features and overall purpose. The characteristics of the included apps were summarized and presented with descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Of the 298 health apps that were initially retrieved, 115 met the inclusion criteria. A total of 29 technical features were found in our sample of apps, which were then categorized into five key purposes of apps related to COVID-19. A total of 77 (67%) apps were developed by governments or national authorities and for the purpose of promoting users to track their personal health (9/29, 31%). Other purposes included raising awareness on how to combat COVID-19 (8/29, 27%), managing exposure to COVID-19 (6/29, 20%), monitoring health by health care professionals (5/29, 17%), and conducting research studies (1/29, 3.5%). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides an overview and taxonomy of the health apps currently available in the market to combat COVID-19 based on their differences in basic technical features and purpose. As most of the apps were provided by governments or national authorities, it indicates the essential role these apps have as tools in public health crisis management. By involving most of the population in self-tracking their personal health and providing them with the technology to self-assess, the role of these apps is deemed to be a key driver for a participatory approach to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Further effort is required from researchers to evaluate these apps' effectiveness and from governmental organizations to increase public awareness of these digital solutions.

Blockchain technologies to mitigate COVID-19 challenges: A scoping review.

Background: As public health strategists and policymakers explore different approaches to lessen the devastating effects of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), blockchain technology has emerged as a resource that can be utilized in numerous ways. Many blockchain technologies have been proposed or implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, to the best of our knowledge, no comprehensive reviews have been conducted to uncover and summarise the main feature of these technologies. Objective: This study aims to explore proposed or implemented blockchain technologies used to mitigate the COVID-19 challenges as reported in the literature. Methods: We conducted a scoping review in line with guidelines of PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). To identify relevant studies, we searched 11 bibliographic databases (e.g., EMBASE and MEDLINE) and conducted backward and forward reference list checking of the included studies and relevant reviews. The study selection and data extraction were conducted by 2 reviewers independently. Data extracted from the included studies was narratively summarised and described. Results: 19 of 225 retrieved studies met eligibility criteria in this review. The included studies reported 10 used cases of blockchain to mitigate COVID-19 challenges; the most prominent use cases were contact tracing and immunity passports. While the blockchain technology was developed in 10 studies, its use was proposed in the remaining 9 studies. The public blockchain technology was the most commonly utilized type in the included studies. All together, 8 different consensus mechanisms were used in the included studies. Out of 10 studies that identified the used platform, 9 studies used Ethereum to run the blockchain. Solidity was the most prominent programming language used in developing blockchain technology in the included studies. The transaction cost was reported in only 4 of the included studies and varied between USD 10-10 and USD 5. The expected latency and expected scalability were not identified in the included studies. Conclusion: Blockchain technologies are expected to play an integral role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Many possible applications of blockchain were found in this review; however, most of them are not mature enough to reveal their expected impact in the fight against COVID-19. We encourage governments, health authorities, and policymakers to consider all blockchain applications suggested in the current review to combat COVID-19 challenges. There is a pressing need to empirically examine how effective blockchain technologies are in mitigating COVID-19 challenges. Further studies are required to assess the performance of blockchain technologies' fight against COVID-19 in terms of transaction cost, scalability, and/or latency when using different consensus algorithms, platforms, and access types.