A Study on COVIDBIT as a COVID-19 Detection Device for an Alternative Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Machine

ABSTRACT

At the end of 2019, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) started and as of now, it is still the number one problem of the world today. This virus can be transmitted through droplets of saliva from an infected person which can be from a sneeze, cough, and exhales. As of now, there are a total of 111 million cases of the virus and there are technologies that were introduced to help in the detection of the infection and to reduce the spread of the virus. One of this technology is the Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Machine. This machine detects any specific genetic material, including a virus. Samples from the body are treated with several chemical solutions which remove substances and only allow Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) to remain. But the problem with this machine is the elicitation of false-positive and false-negative results and certain malfunctions. Due to the issues in using RT-PCR, our team has come up with a newer and improvised version of the machine and called it COVIDBIT. COVIDBIT is a more simplified and portable version of the RT-PCR at a cheaper price. In this study, the team analyzed COVIDBIT as a virus detection device and an alternative for RT-PCR machine using SEM model and found out that there is a significant difference in terms of effectiveness and portability in usage and showed that the 210 respondents from the medical industry are most likely to use these kinds of machine. © 2022 ACM.