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Covid-19 Tracing Inside Companies, with SaferMe's Clint Van Marrewijk
Harry's guest this week is the founder and CEO of a New Zealand firm, SaferMe, that had developed proximity-based smartphone apps for worker safety. When the coronavirus came along, their apps turned out to be a great way to help companies build their own "contact tables" to identify, test, and isolate SARS-CoV-2 carriers.
In epidemiology, contact tracing is the art of determining who has crossed paths with an infected individual, so that those exposed can be alerted and can take appropriate action, such as self-isolating. Health agencies around the world are building public smartphone apps to assist with contact tracing, but they're being deployed at a national scale, whereas many businesses need more detailed information to protect their workers.
Van Marrewijk says SaferMe had already built technology that creates a "virtual safety bubble" around each worker—issuing an alert, for example, if lightning is approaching or if they come too close to a hazard such as a mine shaft. "We already had this technology going and we had already done GDPR [data privacy] compliance," he says. When the company noticed early in the pandemic that some of its clients were using the app as the foundation for in-house COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, it quickly built a dedicated app.
"Someone reports sick, your contact tracer can hit a button and quickly see 'These are the eight people out of a group of 40 that perhaps should stay home or be tested until we sure,'" Van Marrewijk explains. "That gives some assurance there's a proper process in place."
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By Harry GlorikianHarry's guest this week is the founder and CEO of a New Zealand firm, SaferMe, that had developed proximity-based smartphone apps for worker safety. When the coronavirus came along, their apps turned out to be a great way to help companies build their own "contact tables" to identify, test, and isolate SARS-CoV-2 carriers.
In epidemiology, contact tracing is the art of determining who has crossed paths with an infected individual, so that those exposed can be alerted and can take appropriate action, such as self-isolating. Health agencies around the world are building public smartphone apps to assist with contact tracing, but they're being deployed at a national scale, whereas many businesses need more detailed information to protect their workers.
Van Marrewijk says SaferMe had already built technology that creates a "virtual safety bubble" around each worker—issuing an alert, for example, if lightning is approaching or if they come too close to a hazard such as a mine shaft. "We already had this technology going and we had already done GDPR [data privacy] compliance," he says. When the company noticed early in the pandemic that some of its clients were using the app as the foundation for in-house COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, it quickly built a dedicated app.
"Someone reports sick, your contact tracer can hit a button and quickly see 'These are the eight people out of a group of 40 that perhaps should stay home or be tested until we sure,'" Van Marrewijk explains. "That gives some assurance there's a proper process in place."
Please rate and review The Harry Glorikian Show on Apple Podcasts! Here's how to do that from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:
1. Open the Podcasts app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
2. Navigate to The Harry Glorikian Show podcast. You can find it by searching for it or selecting it from your library. Just note that you'll have to go to the series page which shows all the episodes, not just the page for a single episode.
3. Scroll down to find the subhead titled "Ratings & Reviews."
4. Under one of the highlighted reviews, select "Write a Review."
5. Next, select a star rating at the top — you have the option of choosing between one and five stars.
6. Using the text box at the top, write a title for your review. Then, in the lower text box, write your review. Your review can be up to 300 words long.
7. Once you've finished, select "Send" or "Save" in the top-right corner.
8. If you've never left a podcast review before, enter a nickname. Your nickname will be displayed next to any reviews you leave from here on out.
9. After selecting a nickname, tap OK. Your review may not be immediately visible.
That's it! Thanks so much.