Emerging Technologies Used in Health Management and Efficiency Improvement During Different Contact Tracing Phases Against COVID-19 Pandemic.

Confronted with the COVID-19 health crisis, the year 2020 represented a turning point for the entire world. It paved the way for health-care systems to reaffirm their foundations by using different technologies such as sensors, wearables, mobile applications, drones, robots, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT). A lot of domains have been renovated such as diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring, as well as previously unprecedented domains such as contact tracing. Contact tracing, in conjunction with the emergence, spread, and public compliance for vaccines, was a critical step for controlling and limiting the spread of the pandemic. Traditional contact tracing is usually dependent on individuals ability to recall their interactions, which is challenging and yet not effective. Consequently, further development and usage of automated, privacy-preserving, digital contact-tracing was required. As the pandemic is coming to an end, it is vital to collect and learn the effective used technologies that aided in fighting the virus in order to be prepared for any future pandemics and to be aware of any literature gaps that must be filled. This paper surveys state-of-the-art architectures, platforms, and applications combating COVID-19 at each phase of the five basic contact tracing phases, including case identification, contacts identification and rapid exposure notification, surveillance, regular follow up and prevention. In addition, there is a phase of preparation and post-pandemic services for current and needed future technology that will aid in the fight against any incoming infectious diseases.

Comparing Efficiency and Performance of IoT BLE and RFID-Based Systems for Achieving Contract Tracing to Monitor Infection Spread among Hospital and Office Staff.

COVID-19 is highly contagious and spreads rapidly; it can be transmitted through coughing or contact with virus-contaminated hands, surfaces, or objects. The virus spreads faster indoors and in crowded places; therefore, there is a huge demand for contact tracing applications in indoor environments, such as hospitals and offices, in order to measure personnel proximity while placing as little load on them as possible. Contact tracing is a vital step in controlling and restricting pandemic spread; however, traditional contact tracing is time-consuming, exhausting, and ineffective. As a result, more research and application of smart digital contact tracing is necessary. As the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable sensor device studies have grown in popularity, this work has been based on the practicality and successful implementation of Bluetooth low energy (BLE) and radio frequency identification (RFID) IoT based wireless systems for achieving contact tracing. Our study presents autonomous, low-cost, long-battery-life wireless sensing systems for contact tracing applications in hospital/office environments; these systems are developed with off-the-shelf components and do not rely on end user participation in order to prevent any inconvenience. Performance evaluation of the two implemented systems is carried out under various real practical settings and scenarios; these two implemented centralised IoT contact tracing devices were tested and compared demonstrating their efficiency results.