Toward a Compare and Contrast Framework for COVID-19 Contact Tracing Mobile Applications: A Look at Usability

Storni, Cristiano; Tsvyatkova, Damyanka; Richardson, Ita; Buckley, Jim; Abbas, Manzar; Beecham, Sarah; Chochlov, Muslim; Fitzgerald, Brian; Glynn, Liam; Johnson, Kevin; Laffey, John G.; McNicholas, Bairbre; Nuseibeh, Bashar; O’Connell, James J.; O’Keeffe, Derek; O’Keeffe, Ian R.; O'Callaghan, Mike; Razzaq, Abdul; Rekanar, Kaavya; Simpkin, Andrew; Walsh, Jane C.; Welsh, Thomas

doi:10.5220/0010307005570565

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The outcome of the literature search shown in Figure 1 and Multimedia Appendix 5 [ 14 - 17 , 22 , 23 , 25 , 26 , 32 , 34 , 37 , 38 , 40 - 42 , 44 , 47 - 173 ] contains a description of the included studies and their source (indexed literature search, gray literature, references search).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DCTA user experience considerations can be thought of as those relating to universality and those relating to user engagement. Multimedia Appendix 7 [ 29 , 32 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 42 , 69 , 96 - 104 , 106 , 107 , 110 - 118 , 180 - 182 ] provides an overview of the key academic literature [ 75 , 96 - 105 ], gray literature [ 106 , 107 ], regulations [ 42 , 108 - 111 ], guidelines [ 112 , 113 , 180 ], and assessments of existing DCTAs [ 29 , 32 , 38 , 114 - 118 ] that support these recommendations.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A collaborative cross-disciplinary approach (Multimedia Appendix 1 [32,[36][37][38][39]) was used to derive best practice guidance for designing the IDCTA. The cross-disciplinary team included specialists from computer science, engineering, clinical medicine, medical technology, and psychology.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DCTA user experience considerations can be thought of as those relating to universality and those relating to user engagement. Multimedia Appendix 7 [29,32,36,38,39,42,69,[96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104]106,107,[110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][180][181][182] provides an overview of the key academic literature [75,[96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105], gray literature [106,107], regulations [42,[108][109][110][111], guidelines [112,113,…”

Section: User Experience Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Best Practice Guidance for Digital Contact Tracing Apps: A Cross-disciplinary Review of the Literature

O’Connell

Abbas

Beecham

et al. 2021

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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Background Digital contact tracing apps have the potential to augment contact tracing systems and disrupt COVID-19 transmission by rapidly identifying secondary cases prior to the onset of infectiousness and linking them into a system of quarantine, testing, and health care worker case management. The international experience of digital contact tracing apps during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates how challenging their design and deployment are. Objective This study aims to derive and summarize best practice guidance for the design of the ideal digital contact tracing app. Methods A collaborative cross-disciplinary approach was used to derive best practice guidance for designing the ideal digital contact tracing app. A search of the indexed and gray literature was conducted to identify articles describing or evaluating digital contact tracing apps. MEDLINE was searched using a combination of free-text terms and Medical Subject Headings search terms. Gray literature sources searched were the World Health Organization Institutional Repository for Information Sharing, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control publications library, and Google, including the websites of many health protection authorities. Articles that were acceptable for inclusion in this evidence synthesis were peer-reviewed publications, cohort studies, randomized trials, modeling studies, technical reports, white papers, and media reports related to digital contact tracing. Results Ethical, user experience, privacy and data protection, technical, clinical and societal, and evaluation considerations were identified from the literature. The ideal digital contact tracing app should be voluntary and should be equitably available and accessible. User engagement could be enhanced by small financial incentives, enabling users to tailor aspects of the app to their particular needs and integrating digital contact tracing apps into the wider public health information campaign. Adherence to the principles of good data protection and privacy by design is important to convince target populations to download and use digital contact tracing apps. Bluetooth Low Energy is recommended for a digital contact tracing app's contact event detection, but combining it with ultrasound technology may improve a digital contact tracing app's accuracy. A decentralized privacy-preserving protocol should be followed to enable digital contact tracing app users to exchange and record temporary contact numbers during contact events. The ideal digital contact tracing app should define and risk-stratify contact events according to proximity, duration of contact, and the infectiousness of the case at the time of contact. Evaluating digital contact tracing apps requires data to quantify app downloads, use among COVID-19 cases, successful contact alert generation, contact alert receivers, contact alert receivers that adhere to quarantine and testing recommendations, and the number of contact alert receivers who subsequently are tested positive for COVID-19. The outcomes of digital contact tracing apps' evaluations should be openly reported to allow for the wider public to review the evaluation of the app. Conclusions In conclusion, key considerations and best practice guidance for the design of the ideal digital contact tracing app were derived from the literature.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DCTA user experience considerations can be thought of as those relating to universality and those relating to user engagement. Multimedia Appendix 7 [29,32,36,38,39,42,69,[96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104]106,107,[110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][180][181][182] provides an overview of the key academic literature [75,[96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105], gray literature [106,107], regulations [42,[108][109][110][111], guidelines [112,113,…”

Section: User Experience Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Best Practice Guidance for Digital Contact Tracing Apps: A Cross-disciplinary Review of the Literature

O’Connell

Abbas

Beecham

et al. 2021

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The outcome of the literature search shown in Figure 1 and Multimedia 22,23,25,26,32,34,37,38,[40][41][42]44, contains a description of the included studies and their source (indexed literature search, gray literature, references search).…”

Section: Key Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Best Practice Guidance for Digital Contact Tracing Apps: A Cross-disciplinary Review of the Literature (Preprint)

O’Connell¹,

Abbas²,

Beecham³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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BACKGROUND Digital contact tracing apps (DCTAs) have the potential to augment contact tracing systems and disrupt Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) transmission. Despite many countries deploying DCTAs, few have disrupted COVID-19 transmission sufficiently to avoid the most restrictive social distancing measures. OBJECTIVE Our aim was to describe and provide best practice guidance on the design considerations of the ideal digital contact tracing app (IDCTA). METHODS We identified key considerations from the literature and used a cross disciplinary approach to develop best practice guidance for the development of the IDCTA. We conducted a search of the indexed and grey literature to identify articles describing or evaluating DCTAs. We searched Ovid Medline using a combination of free text terms and MeSH search terms. We performed a search of the grey literature using the World Health Organisation (WHO) Institutional Repository for Information Sharing, the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) publications library and Google, including the websites of many health protection authorities. Articles which were acceptable for inclusion in our evidence synthesis were peer-reviewed publications cohort studies, randomised trials, modelling studies, technical reports, white papers and media reports which related to digital contact tracing. RESULTS Ethical, user experience, privacy and data protection, technical, clinical, societal and evaluation considerations were identified from the literature. The IDCTA should be voluntary and should be equitably available and accessible. Therefore. the IDCTA should be disseminated, free of charge and free smart-phones or monofunctional digital contact tracing devices should be deployed in parallel to groups who may not otherwise have access to DCTAs. The IDCTA interface elements should enable multi-modal interaction (e.g., supported by voice control), with comprehensive contents that are available in different languages. Dynamic, consistently updated information on confirmed cases, testing sites, vaccination sites, current government restrictions and state preventive strategies could enhance user engagement. The IDCTA should be adherent to data protection regulation and follow the principles of privacy by design. Bluetooth LE is recommended for DCTA contact event detection but combining it with ultrasound technology may improve DCTA accuracy without significant compromises on privacy preservation and availability. A decentralised privacy preserving protocol should be followed to enable DCTA users exchange and record temporary contact numbers during contact events. The IDCTA should define and risk stratify contact events according to proximity, duration of contact and the infectiousness of the case at the time of contact. Function creep should be prevented by defining at the outset the limits of the DCTA. Defining from DCTA lauch how its effectiveness will be evaluated is important from an ethical point of view. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, we identified from the literature key considerations when developing the IDCTA and provide a best practice approach to these considerations.

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Digital Contact Tracing Apps for COVID-19: Development of a Citizen-Centered Evaluation Framework

Tsvyatkova¹,

Buckley²,

Beecham³

et al. 2022

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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Background The silent transmission of COVID-19 has led to an exponential growth of fatal infections. With over 4 million deaths worldwide, the need to control and stem transmission has never been more critical. New COVID-19 vaccines offer hope. However, administration timelines, long-term protection, and effectiveness against potential variants are still unknown. In this context, contact tracing and digital contact tracing apps (CTAs) continue to offer a mechanism to help contain transmission, keep people safe, and help kickstart economies. However, CTAs must address a wide range of often conflicting concerns, which make their development/evolution complex. For example, the app must preserve citizens’ privacy while gleaning their close contacts and as much epidemiological information as possible. Objective In this study, we derived a compare-and-contrast evaluative framework for CTAs that integrates and expands upon existing works in this domain, with a particular focus on citizen adoption; we call this framework the Citizen-Focused Compare-and-Contrast Evaluation Framework (C3EF) for CTAs. Methods The framework was derived using an iterative approach. First, we reviewed the literature on CTAs and mobile health app evaluations, from which we derived a preliminary set of attributes and organizing pillars. These attributes and the probing questions that we formulated were iteratively validated, augmented, and refined by applying the provisional framework against a selection of CTAs. Each framework pillar was then subjected to internal cross-team scrutiny, where domain experts cross-checked sufficiency, relevancy, specificity, and nonredundancy of the attributes, and their organization in pillars. The consolidated framework was further validated on the selected CTAs to create a finalized version of C3EF for CTAs, which we offer in this paper. Results The final framework presents seven pillars exploring issues related to CTA design, adoption, and use: (General) Characteristics, Usability, Data Protection, Effectiveness, Transparency, Technical Performance, and Citizen Autonomy. The pillars encompass attributes, subattributes, and a set of illustrative questions (with associated example answers) to support app design, evaluation, and evolution. An online version of the framework has been made available to developers, health authorities, and others interested in assessing CTAs. Conclusions Our CTA framework provides a holistic compare-and-contrast tool that supports the work of decision-makers in the development and evolution of CTAs for citizens. This framework supports reflection on design decisions to better understand and optimize the design compromises in play when evolving current CTAs for increased public adoption. We intend this framework to serve as a foundation for other researchers to build on and extend as the technology matures and new CTAs become available.

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Toward a Compare and Contrast Framework for COVID-19 Contact Tracing Mobile Applications: A Look at Usability

Cited by 5 publications

References 3 publications

Best Practice Guidance for Digital Contact Tracing Apps: A Cross-disciplinary Review of the Literature

Best Practice Guidance for Digital Contact Tracing Apps: A Cross-disciplinary Review of the Literature

Best Practice Guidance for Digital Contact Tracing Apps: A Cross-disciplinary Review of the Literature (Preprint)

Digital Contact Tracing Apps for COVID-19: Development of a Citizen-Centered Evaluation Framework

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