Enzyme Advising Group, a leading consulting firm in innovation technology and artificial intelligence with more than 9 years of experience, and SeniorDomo, a leading company in improving the quality of life of the elderly through high-value technological solutions and services, have developed the COwin-19 app, an innovative technological system aimed at helping companies to prepare for the return to normality after the Covid-19 pandemic and offer a healthy working environment after the confinement stage. The project also counts on the collaboration of Draco Systems, an innovative electronic engineering services company, which contributes with its state-of-the-art technology in Bluetooth devices.
COwin-19 was born from a new need in companies derived from Covid-19, providing key information on the health of their employees that companies can use to activate immediate prevention plans. To this end, it offers a fast implementation, effective and flexible solution to guarantee the continuity of companies in the post-confinement stage, without violating the privacy of employees.
Given the current market situation, COwin-19 responds to the challenges faced by companies, which include:
- Offering their employees a healthy work environment within the company's prophylactic capabilities.
- Ensuring the operation of the company by minimizing COVID19-associated sick leave.
- Knowing the current health status of the workforce
- Collaborate with the health authorities in the early detection of cases.
- To provide legal coverage for the company's Occupational Risk Prevention (ORP) responsibilities.
What is COwin-19?
It is a technological system for managing information relevant to the fight against COVID-19 in workplaces composed of two parts:
A contact tracing solution for employees that, by means of a company app or a bluetooth bracelet/collar, allows to record anonymously and securely those prolonged risk contacts in the workplace.
A web-based health manager for company health monitoring departments that enables the management of key information for:
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Prevent: evaluating those departments or centers where there are more risk contacts to focus on specific preventive measures to reduce their number.
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Act: identifying the chain of contacts immediately in order to implement previously established action plans.
COwin-19 is different from other solutions because it is:
- Anonymous: NO personal data is shared with other employees, only encrypted identification codes.
- Private: the employee is NOT geolocated at any time and the position is NOT shared.
- Secure: provides encrypted information on the user's cell phone.
- Active: the application records the encrypted codes of those people in the company who are within a specific radius of proximity.
How does COwin-19 work?
The interested company registers the service and chooses the contact tracing-based occupational health experience that best suits its work environment:
- mobile application for company phones
- bluetooth device
Employees activate the app or device and it registers securely, anonymously and without geolocation the proximity contacts during their work activity, allowing the health surveillance department of a company to know the number of risk contacts per center without identifying individuals.
Angel Puertas, CEO of SeniorDomo points out, "our preventive telecare technology for elderly people already includes bluetooth monitoring and we decided to apply the same technology to help companies in the post-confinement stage".
The company's health monitoring department makes use of COwin-19 to:
- Adopt teleworking measures
- Record the delivery of preventive material (PPE, etc. ...)
- Implement and communicate individualized prevention measures.
- Record the results of COVID-19 preventive inspections.
- Analyze the current health status of your company and the result of implemented prevention measures
- Display the number of contacts in the workforce quantitatively (without accessing the names of individuals)
- Register symptomatic employees or set up preventive quarantine measures
When an employee presents obvious symptoms of COVID-19, the company's health surveillance department registers it in COwin-19 and it is at that moment that the name of the persons with whom the prolonged risk contact has been established is revealed.
COwin-19 alerts the symptomatic employee that the company's health surveillance department will display the names of the people with whom close contact has been established and implements the prevention system defined by the company while respecting the anonymity of the individuals.
COwin-19 is an innovative project, developed not only to facilitate the return to normality of companies, but also to ensure the peace of mind of employees and their close environment, with a solution that helps the health surveillance departments of companies to make decisions with relevant information that makes every minute count to stop the spread of contagion and accelerate the gradual restoration of our daily activities. Part of the profits from this initiative will be donated to the fight against the pandemic in countries with fewer resources.
One of the main challenges has been the development of the solution in record time and with the whole team working remotely during the confinement.
A solution on the move
Many companies have shown interest in the Cowin-19 solution and some of them have already opted for this solution to manage the return to work in the middle of the pandemic. This is the case of the Biscayan company Emica Bombas, which has about 50 employees and is dedicated to the industrial development of centrifugal pumps and ventilation.
"We are a company with more than 120 years of history and at different times we have had to adapt to complex circumstances. Changes can involve a myriad of decisions and we are currently living in a situation of uncertainty," notes Jon Ander Aguirrebengoa, the company's general manager. "Cowin-19 helps us to establish preventive measures and de-escalation protocols, as well as to generate confidence in the control of the possibility of contagion within the organization," he adds. Aguirrebengoa points out that the implementation of the app has been well received by his workers and encourages its use, since "while we do not have a similar system for all citizens, it is interesting to be able to implement this type of technology in specific groups such as companies".
Indeed, there are already many companies that are analyzing which tool to use for the return to normality in their physical spaces, as explained, for example, in this program.
Álvaro Ortín, CEO of Enzyme, explains his use case in el Periódico and comments "we love to be able to put our 'blocks' of digital platforms in the creation of products like this, with this initiative we want to contribute our grain of sand to ensure the continuity of companies and facilitate their return to the new normality".
