This was posted on healthforum.nz by Gordon Munro (a GP practice manager and informatician)
The MoH has released its COVID Tracing App. I wrote a quick summary of it here which might be useful for people. In short, it looks good and simple to use and we should all be putting up QR codes which app users can scan.
My article has links to the app and how to create a QR code for your organisation.
The App is terrible.
Most places (and people) do not have qr codes.
I presume they will email users if required (which will most likley be lost in peoples junk mail).
I have created my own log using google forms for my team (for free and requies no data be sent to MOH)
I couldnât either @dr.sarah.clarke but if you go to the MOH website on your phone, click the button for the app on the webpage it takes you straight to the app on Google play (not sure if this works for Appstore). Quite a few of my colleagues had the same problem on work phones which are all Samsung.
I concur with some of the issues raised. I was able to circumvent the issues and figure out how to download from the MOH webpage but I do wonder how many people (those less digitally savvy or time poor) out there would be able to or bothered to do this. It needs to be much simpler to download and use.
The COVID-19 App developed for New Zealand is relatively simple. Effectively it records where you have been and when, so that you can tell the contact tracing team if you have potentially been in contact with COVID-19.It also records your contact details which may also be used by the contact tracing team.
The Singapore and Australian apps use bluetooth to detect who you have been in contact with â as long as they also have the app. Bluetooth apps can only give approximate distances to other people and usually need more power, meaning you have to charge the phone more often. They also need everyone to use the app and usage has been very low at around 10-15% in Singapore.
The NZ app just records where you have been using its own QR codes to âcheck inâ to places. This is technically much simpler âwe are already doing this recording as we check-in to shops etc. However, because there are many different apps and paper-based ways of doing this, getting the data quickly to the contact tracing team is hard, and following up contacts quickly is very important so that they donât infect others. This was an issue early in the outbreak- many health IT systems donât talk to each other so following up people from different regions was slow.
The advantages of this approach are that it supplies exactly the information needed by the contact tracing team and wonât add lots of other information about probably non-significant contacts⌠It doesnât depend on everyone using it, unlike the Bluetooth approach and it should use less power. It should not release any private location data unless you need to be contact-traced and that is covered by privacy law anyway. It puts the onus on contact tracing very much onto the contact-tracing team, rather than being a âpersonalâ warning system. It depends on people checking-in accurately although I think most people will be happy doing that although the onus is on you to remember to do it.
The biggest issue with this app is that it doesnât really bring much benefit to the person using it. It doesnât replace the check-in systems to businesses or even allow you to automatically send your history to the contact tracing team although this is promised. I found the interface to set it up rather clunky and I suspect a lot of people will give up. It also asks for a lot of information (admittedly voluntary) that it doesnât need. People are used to very easy to use apps and for something designed to be used by the whole population this feels like a government app. Not impossible to use but not delightful either. I think this will be a major issue in terms of the value of this app.
In terms of privacy and security, two factor-authentication â usually something you know and something you have -can be set up but that is complicated. I would strongly support releasing the source code for this app so that the security community can test it and examine it, this is a much more reliable way of protecting data than âsecurity by obscurityâ.
Iâve downloaded it, nice and simple and it looks good. Whilst I acknowledge the comments from others I think itâs a great first step and Iâm looking forward to the updates. Well done to the MOH team on getting this out there
Ashley said at todayâs press conference that there have been 92,000 downloads already and that there will be another release this afternoon to iron out some of the wrinkles encountered.
He also made a comment at the very end which I thought CiLN members would be interesting in, about capturing and amplifying the digital changes that have occurred in the health system due to Covid-19, especially the use of virtual appointments.
âNot everything can be done over the phone or virtually but many appointments can and we are very interested in this and we are putting effort into capturing these (changes) and locking them in and broadening their use so they are part of what the future health system looks like.â
Iâve also downloaded it onto my Samsung phone. Was easy to do, and although password was long Iâve started to use phrases which makes it easier to make and remember long, more secure passwords. Iâm a paranoid South African so am not entirely comfortable about being tracked but will give it a go (until my unease gets the better of me and I remove the app). Thatâs a personal issue. May not be so for others.
MoH update at 1pm says that >92,000 have loaded the app onto their devices, some have reported issues and issues are being addressed as priority.
I echo this - although it has several issues, it is pretty damn polished for a first release into the wild! Hopefully they will rapidly seek and respond to feedback and iterate in an agile manner.
Good to hear that come from Ashley. Might be nice if he could throw some money at the multiple research projects on this that are in progress, e.g. the one that our members are collaborating on re patientsâ experiences with tele-appointments (video and phone) Iâll send an update tomorrow to CiLN on our progress to date.
Yes please, let us know what doesnât work - or ideas you have.
There are a few firsts in here for us, and more to come - we are publishing the draft standards today if we can. And working on integration with NCTS (and how we certify users for this).
Also, we have had a fair amount of feedback about our privacy stance - suffice to say we didnât want to create a database of peopleâs location history, and we got a strong steer that we werenât allowed to.
Do we need to ask the business we visit if they have a business number QR code or should they already have one? The QR code in the cafe I used this morning was invalid in the MoH app unfortunately.
I found the app easy to find and get started with - I am highly motivated and relatively digitally savvy.
Important to keep people engaged - if businesses can use the app QR code to also keep a register of the people they have coming in who scan in then the businesses will be more likely to go to the trouble of putting up the Govt QR code - then more people will use the app to scan â virtuous cycle
That is what I would work on next - people are going to want an easy way of recording where they have been for quite a while yet
Yes Kerry - please ask the business to create a QR code - we are working on a bulk creation process at the moment for large organisations - eg. DHBs - should be ready by the end of the week.
@jon_herries - Kerry highlights the direction that the app must move in order to be a rapid fire success - by embracing the needs of businesses in addition to the needs of individuals and the MoH. This has been echoed in this thread by many, and also in the parallel https://healthforum.nz/t/nz-covid-tracing-app-is-here/2822 thread.
Is this being addressed? Because us asking businesses to create a code just isnât going to fly unless there is something in it for them (beyond silencing annoying customers).
My summary view, I think that what exists is a good start. Though it was disappointing that it wasnât released earlier to reduce the need for businesses/organisations to implement their own solution resulting in countless, different contact tracing apps.
A few observations (please correct me my assumptions are wrong):
Checking in:
relatively easyâŚassuming:
youâre already registered,
you know what to look for (QR code Poster),
the business is using a valid MoH NZ COVID Tracer QR code.
Check-in observation: I saw some people who hadnât registered before they entered Bunnings and found that people congregated trying to install the app, register, sign in and check in. Also the location of the QR code was poorly placed (at the top of the escalator). Iâm assuming there are placement guidelines. From what Iâve seen at some businesses, the QR posters not always being placed in sensible locations.
Check outâŚdoesnât seem to exist (or isnât clear). I will admit I havenât done much research on this so there may be justified reason for not having checkout capabilities in the app.
I spent some time trying to find a way to check out because I thought this would help the contact tracing effort to reduce the manual tracing efforts. I think a checkout function would be beneficial to reduce the manual contact tracing effort to chase people to understand how long people stayed after they checked in. Check out compliance would likely be low because people will likely forget easily. Of the people who are compliant, this could save tracing time and effort.
Allowing check out to be done retrospectively when people do remember âoh yeah, forgot to check out but I know I was there for about 30 minsâ
Accessibility has been a well-reported issue for people with low vision. I know the Ministry has this feedback but am pretty disappointed the app and the QR posters werenât âaccessible by designâ. I suspect that, given limited time and resources, security trumped accessibility in the priority feature list. This probably resulted in higher public trust and therefore improved adoption which is a fair trade-off given the exceptional health implications. If this was the case, I think this was a wise move. Again, this is my assumption and I may be wrong. It is a shame that accessibility is rarely prioritised for consumers.
Briefly looking around at other tracing apps around the world, I personally would be willing to share my location data and sacrifice some privacy for a set time given transparent, plain English privacy policies and some reassurance that data will only be used for COVID tracing and the records are deleted after a specified time. I think thatâs because Iâm personally more trusting of AU/NZ Governments than of those around the rest of the world.
Iâll send an update tomorrow to CiLN on our progress to date.