Epidemiological Observation From a Smartphone Self-monitoring Application for Suspected COVID-19 Patients' Triage (COVID CALL 15)

A coronavirus pandemic began on 12/31/2020 with the first Chinese patient. As of 3/16/2020, the epidemic affects more than 100 countries with 169,000 official infections and 6,500 deaths. This virus causes a pathology ranging from simple flu symptoms in 80% of cases to acute respiratory distress syndromes requiring resuscitation in 5% of cases and a death rate of 1.4 to 4% of cases.

The arrival in France on 02/25/2020 with an exponential development of the infection (more than 5,000 cases on 03/15/2020) was accompanied by an unprecedented number of calls to the French emergency service call number (15) of worried patients with overload and sometimes saturation of the service that can impact calls and the care of patients really recovering from an emergency.

We previously developed a Moovcare® web application which showed a 7 months survival benefit by early detection of relapsed lung cancer based on the reporting of patient symptoms analyzed by a validated algorithm in 300 patients and 1 trial randomized. Another application for detecting and monitoring chemo-induced febrile aplasia appears to show a reduction in the number of hospitalizations for sepsis. Finally, Smokecheck, a self-assessment application for symptoms by smokers, has shown that it improves the detection of symptomatic operable bronchial cancers (9 to 24%, p = 0.04).

The web application https://www.maladiecoronavirus.fr/ was developed with a group of physicians from the Institut Pasteur, Hospitals group of Paris, Hospitals of Lille and Rennes and the ILC Jean Bernard in Le Mans. It makes it possible to guide symptomatic patients and patients who wishing to know what to do (call their general practitioner, teleconsultation, or call emergency service) based on symptoms and predictive factors of severity.

Following the availability of this new tool, we want to assess the impact of the application on the number and relevance of calls to emergency service.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: COVID-19
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Web application users

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 12000000

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Le Mans, France
    • All French Emergency services

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

All users of the https://www.maladiecoronavirus.fr/ application over the age of 18

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All users of the https://www.maladiecoronavirus.fr/ application over the age of 18

Exclusion Criteria:

• not applicable

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Cohort
• Time Perspectives: Prospective

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Web-application users; questionnaire of comorbidity and symptomes completed by the user on his smartphone	Device: Web application users; questionnaire of comorbidity and symptoms completed by the patient on his smartphone

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
To assess of the evolution of the number of calls to Emergency service within 12 days after the launch of the application https://www.maladiecoronavirus.fr/	Number of calls to Emergency service after the launch of web application comparded to the days before	12 days
To assess of the evolution of the proportion of relevant calls to Emergency service within 12 days after the launch of the application https://www.maladiecoronavirus.fr/	Number of relevants calls to Emergency service after the launch of web application comparded to the days before	12 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
To assess the evolution over time of the COVID 19 epidemic	the symptoms collected by the application	3 months
To assess the evolution over space of the COVID 19 epidemic	the symptoms collected by the application according to ZIP code	3 months
To assess symptoms	Descriptive analysis of symptoms collected by web-application	3 months
To assess the users population	Descriptive analysis of data collected by web-application	3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Weprom
• Collaborators: Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris; Institut Pasteur; DOCAPOST; Direction Générale de l'Offre de Soins
• Investigators: Study Director: Fabrice DENIS, MD, Jean Bernard Center - LE MANS

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Denis F, Fontanet A, Le Douarin YM, Le Goff F, Jeanneau S, Lescure FX. A Self-Assessment Web-Based App to Assess Trends of the COVID-19 Pandemic in France: Observational Study. J Med Internet Res. 2021 Mar 12;23(3):e26182. doi: 10.2196/26182.
• Galmiche S, Rahbe E, Fontanet A, Dinh A, Bénézit F, Lescure FX, Denis F. Implementation of a Self-Triage Web Application for Suspected COVID-19 and Its Impact on Emergency Call Centers: Observational Study. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Nov 23;22(11):e22924. doi: 10.2196/22924.
• Denis F, Galmiche S, Dinh A, Fontanet A, Scherpereel A, Benezit F, Lescure FX. Epidemiological Observations on the Association Between Anosmia and COVID-19 Infection: Analysis of Data From a Self-Assessment Web Application. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Jun 11;22(6):e19855. doi: 10.2196/19855.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 17, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 15, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): November 15, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 30, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 30, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): April 2, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 8, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 6, 2021
• Last Verified: April 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: COVID-19; epidemiology; M-health; Self-assessment application; symptoms
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Coronavirus Infections; Coronaviridae Infections; Nidovirales Infections; RNA Virus Infections; Virus Diseases; Infections; Respiratory Tract Infections; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Pneumonia, Viral; Pneumonia; Lung Diseases; COVID-19
• Other Study ID Numbers: WP-2020-02

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No