A Novel Internet of Medical Things Model to Progress COVID-19 Testing

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the public health infrastructure of the globe. The crucial strategy has been to carry out aggressive testing, which could be the only way to get back to normalcy. The COVID-19 testing is carried out through the Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), which is considered to be the gold standard. However, these tests are sometimes known to provide inaccurate results which might be due to improper sample storage and transportation techniques. The swab samples transported in a viral transport medium need to be maintained under optimum environmental conditions. The proposed model involves tagging humidity and thermologger devices with the sample container box. This would record the real-time temperature and humidity, which would be stored in the cloud server. This would predict any breakage in the cold chain using AI-powered pattern analysis techniques. This would intimate the authorities of a possible cold chain breakage, thereby assuring the quality of the samples. This would drastically reduce the possibility of false outcomes. This would help the healthcare workers to trace, isolate and treat the right affected individuals, preventing the further spread of the disease. This model could also be used for distribution of COVID-19 vaccines whenever they are available. This could preserve the potency of the vaccines, thereby significantly reducing the wastage of vaccines. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.