Data is the most expensive item in the world. However, data that is too complicated to use doesn't generate much value. Thus, our platform will curate relevant data about the dissemination of COVID-19, helping decision makers and people involved to create public policies that impact the whole society.
At first we tried to access the data available and understand how we could monitor the Covid-19 spread. So we faced a huge problem: when we access data on the internet and NASA databases, we found some difficulty in visualizing and using it. The information is found in pieces (eg, transport, topography, demographic information), in different locations, unrelated to Covid-19, some in databases where it is necessary to use code to manipulate. Without minimal technical skill, part of the data cannot be used. We could not find a platform that is easy to cross the characteristics of a micro region to the behavior of registered or suspicious COVID-19 cases in that area in real time.
Covid-19, like other infectious diseases, is of relevance in the lives of all people, as we are all socially interconnected. Therefore, we thought that governors and people related to decision making about the society could have difficulty in using and interpreting them. Especially when the person needs to analyse the situation in smaller places, like a city or a neighbourhood, and not in a country or a state, as the infection from Covid-19 has been happening in specific ways in different regions.
We discussed together, used some co-creation dynamics such as Target and Crazy-8 exercises, and got to a solution that puts together several data that are already collected today by different channels, relating them to confirmed cases of Covid-19, so that the governments make them available to scientists and organizations to help monitor Covid-19 and other future infectious diseases.
We analysed that the data could be easily gathered from partnerships and official databases, obtained through an architecture oriented to microservices using high availability cloud (ej. AWS, Oracle, Azure, etc), high processing algorithms and artificial intelligence in the backend and also an intuitive interface based on the concepts of user experience (UX).
After designing the idea, we validated it with mentors with IT skills and also validated through hypothesis tests conducted with two stakeholders: a municipal health superintendent and a head of the diagnostic division of a large public hospital. They agreed that the solution works by enabling ways to easily access the data that is already collected, but currently have problems of delay in gathering all the information, which are fragmented and difficult to use. One of them even said already that he wanted to buy our product when it is further developed.
We also considered the possibility of not being compliant with data protection laws. So we talked to two experts on data laws to understand what we could do, an IT Senior Manager responsible for a team in the HR of a multinational company and a Lawyer and professor focused on bioethics in health issues. After that, we could adjust the idea properly.
In the end we validated the prototype with the stakeholders, confirming that we had a great product, ready to be developed for a Brazillian city, easily scalable to the whole world.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BTekai45vo7Q_r6vL9BX64OUCfyL_dHH
We analysed JAXA and NASA by downloading information available at the platforms listed below, and also calling some NASA open API's. We also used Google Maps, Traffic movements, and information at governamental websites. In our solution this data will be processed by microservices that will make it available intuitively on our platform. Some useful links:
https://covid19.census.gov/ , https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/pathfinders/covid-19, https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/mapping/popest/covid-19/ , https://eurodatacube.com/spaceapps/ , https://kuroshio.eorc.jaxa.jp/JASMES/index.html , https://api.nasa.gov/