POLL: Digital Health wants your views on the NHS contact-tracing app
- 5 May 2020
As the NHS contact-tracing app is rolled out across the Isle of Wight this week, Digital Health News is asking for reader’s opinions on the technology.
We are asking three questions, which cover a number of issues that have been raised about the app, which uses Bluetooth technology to alert users if they have come into contact with someone experiencing coronavirus symptoms.
Once a user inputs their symptoms the app automatically logs the distance between their phone and other phones nearby and provides advice accordingly.
Questions range from the NHS’ approach to the app, to concerns readers have.
You have until 12pm on May 13 to cast your vote and we will publish the results shortly afterwards. You can vote below.
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More on Covid-19 contact tracing apps
- NHS contact-tracing app launched in Isle of Wight
- NHSX sets up ethics advisory board to oversea contact-tracing app
- Contact-tracing apps could ‘catastrophically’ hamper trust, academics warn
- Digital Health Unplugged: April news team debrief (from home)
- NHSX must be ‘upfront’ about contact-tracing app, privacy group says
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8 Comments
We’d need a lot of people to download the app and use it successfully to give us good data….will we get this with so many tech variables??
I wont be buying new phone to get this app but would be keen to see it.
How will it work for keyworkers/ health and social care staff as by the nature of our work .. we will be in contact?
I’m not sure but didn’t I read somewhere that where this form of contact
tracing app has been used in other countries …it only had 20 % uptake….??
The Privacy debate is one that sits outside the introduction of this app. While it is clearly a key point of discussion, it is really a national debate on use of our health data and the potential for agencies to track individuals. This is one of many such applications and processes where scrutiny and a national policy are required. i.e. It is a legitimate, but larger concern.
The real issue here is that this specific app has serious technical flaws due to it’s inability to remain active on the 2 operating systems in general use. Even Android (which is used by over 80% of people) only allows it to remain active as a background app for a few minutes; iOS suspends it immediately. In either case, the app will not be able to fulfil its primary purpose in most scenarios and I very much doubt there is an effective workaround for that.
So, let’s not conflate the issues as that’s unhelpful. Regardless of the privacy issue, the app itself cannot work as designed. I might have much to say about the development house and government procurement and project team who failed to spot the technical blocker, but this is not the place, not does it aid the debate.
Contact.tracing
You’d think someone could have read up on care.data, but we’re seeing all the same fail points – central agency that thinks it’s the smartest, best meaning guy in the room, big centralised information grab, unclear use case with clear scope for function creep, murky private sector involvement, poor public communications, snippy response to criticism, constant retrenchment in the face of it.
Let’s just hope NHSX’s next big idea is not a public info campaign by pizza leaflet-style mail drop…
A centralised model that every other government in Europe and North America has rejected, an involvement by the murky Palantir, and the idea that NCSC – a sibling offshoot of GCHQ – will perhaps take the opportunity to reuse this data in privacy-impacting ways all add up to a deeply troubling picture.
I am concerned that the NHSX app lacks compatibility with Google and Apple contact tracing Apps. It also seems to neglect the existence of the Coved symptom tracker app which is already widely used in the uk. It seems that we are reinvent the wheel . I have seen comments that we may not in future be able to use this for travel. Is this another expensive way of government procurement – interested to know who the outsourcing company is.
It is also not clear how this will work for health professionals. If I see a patient with Coronovirus but I am wearing PPE how does the app know. Is there an “I am at work in PPE” option?
If my colleague in the next room – a couple of inches of plasterboard easily penetrated by Bluetooth – sees a patient with Covid-19, does that count. I am really not sure that this will be suitable for me.
In principal I have no objection so long as there isn’t mission creep later on.
It should help monitor and plan whilst we wait for a magic vaccine, which could be a long time and we need to be able to mobilise more efficiently.
A problem I see that no one has /refuses to address is how old a phone will it work on?
I have an iPhone4 that works fine for my needs but is limited to running IOS7…I suspect this app will require IOS9 upwards ie. it won’t be compatible. I won’t be spending more money on an expensive smart phone so this app runs. I’m sure I’m not alone and so the data will be limited and poor quality as only those who chase after the current model of phone and make this a lifestyle objective will be able to run it. I put this down to bad design and lack of though by the developers who are making a lot of assumptions. The other concern is it will be open to abuse with false reporting by attention seeking disruptors who like to create chaos.
These questions are difficult to answer when we haven’t had sight of the App or the consent materials for patients. There is a lot of work to be done in the professional and patient engagement space if this is going to work, and by God we need it to work. It’s in danger of being kicked to death on social media before we’ve seen it. Keep calm ,have a look, think about how you could help. The soft stuff is, as ever, the hard stuff.
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