StaySafe

A system comprised of a mobile phone app and a server which helps the citizens to protect themselves from hazards like pandemics, chemical accidents, extreme weather etc.

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Executive Summary

What problems is our project solving:

  • StaySafe helps people identify and avoid health risks
  • StaySafe helps the authorities prioritize Covid19 testing (or any other infection testing) in a large city environment by facilitating epidemiological investigations
  • StaySafe provides alerts for first responders (first-aid medical professionals or volunteer first-aid) that can help in emergency situations (not necessarily Covid19 related)

What do we bring to the table:

  • StaySafe is a Platform made of a Mobile App and a Server.
  • The Server feeds the MobileApps apps with relevant information about epidemics (symptoms, self-diagnostic tests), pollution, extreme weather conditions (pollution and extreme weather data are dangerous for people with chronic medical conditions like asthma or high blood pressure);
  • If the users chose to do so the "Mobile App" sends to the Server the results of the self-diagnostic tests, the log of the locations for the last X days (to be used in the epidemiological investigations), emergency alerts (like in the case of heart attacks, accidents), information about the current location of the users (so that the ambulance and the first-aid volunteers know where to go);
  • The architecture of the solution allows us to integrate PEPP-PT and the Apple-Google Covid-19 contact tracing technology when they will be ready, but can work effectively from Day One without them

What have we done during the weekend:

  • We have built the working prototypes for the Server and the Mobile App
  • We have prepared the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for them in accordance with GDPR
  • We have prepared the presentation and the video pitch

StaySafe's solution to the crisis:

  • StaySafe offers the citizens a comfortable means to find out about medical risks in their area, to run a self-diagnose in case they suspect of being infected and to assist voluntarily the medical authorities in the epidemiological investigations by providing the log of their locations in the last X days;
  • StaySafe offers an end-to-end solution to the needs of collecting data about contagious persons' whereabouts and contacts, prioritizing which suspects to test, passing valid and up-to-date information to the population about how to fight the epidemic and doing all that in the most non-intrusive way, using proven technologies available right now.

Our necessities in order to continue the project

  • 1 public health expert;
  • 1 expert in AI for medical diagnosis;
  • 1 Data Scientist (preferably with epidemiological expertise);
  • 1 UX expert;
  • 1 Full-Stack Developer (ideally) or 1 Front-End and 1 Back-End Developer;
  • 1 expert in sensors for smartphones and embedded devices (fitness trackers, smart watches);
  • 1 iOS developer;
  • 1 Android developer;
  • 1 Kubernetes/DevOps expert;
  • 1 Data Protection Officer;
  • 1 legal expert;
  • 200,000 euro

The value of StaySafe after the crisis

  • StaySafe is a reusable Platform which can be loaded with new sets of symptoms and new self-diagnostic algorithms whenever a new epidemic, chemical or nuclear accident happens;
  • StaySafe is useful even in the absence of an epidemic, chemical or nuclear accident, as a platform for preventing health problems in case of extreme weather or air pollution. Therefore StaySafe it will be used permanently by people with chronic diseases which are sensitive to such factors (e.g. people with high blood pressure are sensitive to hot weather while people with asthma are sensitive to air pollution);
  • StaySafe is useful for coordinating first aid in case of medical emergencies in overcrowded cities where traffic might prevent ambulances from reaching patients in time, by directing volunteers with proper first-aid training to the person in need.

Detailed Presentation

What problems are we solving?

  • StaySafe addresses the shortage of information regarding people that have been in contact with infected people (helps the epidemiological investigation in case of epidemic outbreaks). This is done by using the location logs of the last X days, provided voluntarily by the infected people who are users of the StaySafe Mobile App;
  • StaySafe helps prioritize testing for the most likely people to get infected. This helps to identify and treat sooner the infected individuals;
  • StaySafe allows victims of accidents or people in severe acute medical conditions to get access to qualified medical or paramedical emergency personnel who happens to be nearby. That prompt intervention might save their lives in overcrowded cities where the ambulances might be very late because of the traffic;
  • StaySafe provides the users with alerts containing relevant information regarding the user’s health, based on the user's medical history and environment conditions (weather temperature, pollution, etc);
  • StaySafe is a highly reusable and extensible Platform: new diseases, new algorithm for assessing the severity of a medical condition, new ways of collecting information from the phone sensors and new alerts can be configured centrally on the Server by health experts and automatically disseminated to the Mobile App. So any investment in StaySafe is future-proofed;
  • StaySafe treats people's most sensitive personal information (health and places they have been) with utmost care and respect. The information is only released voluntarily by the user in case of a medical emergency. If the user doesn't explicitly release it, nobody can get it out of the Mobile App where it is stored encrypted. When released, the information travels in encrypted form through an encrypted channel to the Server, where is also stored in encrypted format;
  • StaySafe can be used with reasonable efficacy by privacy and security conscious people who switch off their Bluetooth and WiFi services when they don't use them. It does not require such people to alter their privacy and security habits in order to use the Mobile App. It can be used with moderate efficacy even when people switch off their GPS tracking by using only the base station information.

What do we bring to the table? (How does StaySafe work?)

For helping with the epidemiological investigations

  • Users can choose to help the epidemiological investigations by activating the location logging;
  • When location logging is activated the Mobile Application reads the phone sensors (GPS, WiFi) and stores X days of location information;
  • If the user gets sick with an infectious disease or intoxicated with a chemical, she can voluntarily release the content of her location log to the medical authorities by pushing it from the Mobile App to the Server;
  • The medical authorities use the Server to compile the location logs voluntarily released by all the infected/chemically contaminated people and a place-and-time-contagion-map is obtained. That contagion map is pushed by the Server to the Mobile App of the other users. The Mobile App alerts the user if her own location log shows she has been in certain areas at certain times when confirmed infected people were also there. The user then can take the self-diagonsis test by answering a list of questions about symptoms. After the self-diagnostic test is taken the user may decide if she wants to release the results to the medical authorities, together with the location log confirming she might have been exposed to contamination;
  • This scheme is therefore completely different from putting all the mobile phone users under surveillance. It protects the citizens fundamental rights even in times of crisis.

For prioritizing the tests for infection (or intoxication with dangerous chemicals, or radioactive contamination)

  • The medical experts compile and load on the Server a list of symptoms and an algorithm for judging the severity of the infection/intoxication/radioactive contamination for each disease or chemical accident. The lists and the algorithms are pushed onto the Mobile App;
  • The user goes through the checklist. If the algorithm signals she might have a problem, the user has the option to voluntarily notify the medical authorities by voluntarily releasing to the Server the result of the algorithmic evaluation of the self-diagnosis test, her present location and the location log for the last X days;
  • The medial authorities use the Server to compile and cross reference the received information (for instance by checking it against the person's medical records with the health authorities and with other location logs received from other users) and then they can decide if the user is a good candidate to test for the infection/intoxication. In case they decide not to test the user, they can use recommend the user other actions, by pushing them to the user's Mobile App.

For rapid intervention in case of an accident or medical emergency

  • The user installs the *Mobile App and configures it by providing information about gender, age, weight, height, hair color, picture, her known medical conditions (chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, regular medications, allergies), blood type. The information about the physical characteristics (picture, weight, height, hair color) will be useful if there are multiple unconscious victims at the location of the accident and the first aid personnel need to know the persons' identities and their medical records;
  • In case of emergency (e.g. heart attack or car accident) user presses the emergency button, releasing to the Server the information provided at setup and her current location;
  • The Server dispatches the information to the 112 service control center so an ambulance is sent, and in the same time broadcasts it to the Mobile Apps of the authorized emergency responders (off-duty doctors, off duty paramedics, certified first-aid volunteers);
  • Each authorized emergency responder in the area gets an alert on her Mobile App. By receiving information about how the victim looks like and what other prior medical conditions the victim has, the responder can provide better first-aid services to the victim, even if the victim is unconscious at the time the responder arrives to the scene
  • Every authorized user gets a special code from the relevant authorities in order to be able to activate this function on her Mobile App. Regular users do not receive such alerts and therefore they cannot crowd an area where an accident has happened;

For helping users with pre-existing medical conditions to stay safe in case of bad weather or high pollution

  • The users with known medical conditions mark them in a list provided by the medical experts on the Server and pushed into the Mobile Apps;
  • The Mobile App pulls periodically data from relevant sources (weather forecasts, environmental agencies) regarding metheorological conditions and levels of pollution. This data is automatically processed by the Mobile App against the list of known medical conditions. If they are relevant to the user, then she receives an alert advising her to stay indoors, to move away from the area, to avoid the area or to gain shelter;

For ensuring reusability and future-proofing

  • All the logic of the Mobile App is generated on the Server by experts. If new diseases or types of intoxication need to be processed, they are uploaded on the Server and pushed to the Mobile App. That saves the need to re-write the Mobile App every time

For ensuring GDPR compliance and privacy protection

  • The users will be presented with a privacy policy and terms of service detailing what data are collected, how they are processed and for what purposes as well as their rights under GDPR and how can they exercise them;
  • All the personal data (including the location log and the medical data) is stored in the Mobile App is stored in encrypted format in the smartphone SSD;
  • The relevant data (medical data, current location, medical data, result of evaluation of symptoms) are pushed from the Mobile App onto the Server only as the result of the user's explicit consent (by pushing the "Emergency" or "Test request" buttons);
  • All the communication with the Server is through encrypted channels;
  • All the data received from the users is stored on the Server in encrypted form;
  • The data sent to the authorized emergency responders will be automatically deleted by their Mobile App after 90 minutes from receiving the alert, if the responder is present at the location of the accident and in 30 minutes from the receiving of the alert if the responder is not at the location of accident.

The Business Plan

The paying customers

The paying customers will be the public authorities with responsibilities in Public Health and Emergency Services (e.g. the operators of 112 service). They will pay a setup fee and a yearly subscription (or a multi-annual one if national laws allow multi-annual contracts). Another source of income might be on-demand customization and extension of the Platform

Key selling points:

  • A future-proof Platform which allows reconfiguration of the functionalities of the Mobile App each time a new epidemic or a chemical/nuclear accident occurs;
  • A modular architecture based on micro-services which can scale up and down dynamically with the demand and which can be extended easily with 3-rd party modules providing new functionalities;
  • A solution which allows the Server to be operated on-premise or in the cloud.

The users:

  • The public authorities for the Server
  • The general population for the Mobile App

Further needs to get to the production phase:

  • 1 public health expert;
  • 1 expert in AI for medical diagnosis;
  • 1 Data Scientist;
  • 1 UX expert;
  • 1 Full-Stack Developer (ideally) or 1 Front-End and 1 Back-End Developer;
  • 1 expert in sensors for smartphones and embeded devices (fitness trackers, smart watches);
  • 1 iOS developer;
  • 1 Android developer;
  • 1 Kubernetes/DevOps expert;
  • 1 Data Protection Officer;
  • 1 legal expert;
  • 200,000 euro

Why do we think we can pull it through?

Strong core team with diversified expertise:

  • Mihail Cazacu is an electronics engineer, graduate of the Technical University of Bucharest holding a MBA from the Conservatoire of Arts et Metiers, Paris, France, with 26 years of experience in software development, systems integration, international management consulting. He served for 3 years in the Romanian Prim Minister's Office as Cabinet Director (Deputy CIO). He also acts as an expert in cybersecurity for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the UN Government Group of Experts (UNGGE) and currently works as the Public Affairs Manager of the Romanian Software Industry Association (ANIS). He is in his 2nd year PhD in AI program at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, Romania
  • Mircea Grigoraș is a former Deputy Director of the Romanian CERT and a former Head of Scientific Partnerships and Cooperation Department at the Advanced Technology Institute of the Romanian Intelligence Service. He is currently a cybersecurity expert for one of Romania's major banks and has acted as an UN expert on cybersecurity in various international programs
  • Ovidiu Ariton is a computer scientists who also holds a degree in management, with 21 years of software development, software architecture, IT management and leading major projects in payments, banking, financial markets, defense, R&D for the oil&gas industry, ERP, document management and IoT for international and domestic customers. He is also a computer security expert with 6 years of experience working for the Romanian CERT.

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