THE USE OF DIGITAL TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY FOR MAPPING AND MITIGATING THE RISK OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN BUSINESS TRAVELERS

Abstract

Introduction/objectives

Analysis of infectious disease outbreaks provides key inputs to inform surveillance and measure health risk for travelers. The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) showed that rapid response needed to understand the impact to geographical and business locations is key in developing mitigation measures. Health care professionals needed to adapt and incorporate technology into processes to provide timely results. The objective of this study is to describe the process of technology adaptation, combined with a professional knowledge on outbreak mitigation to ensure protection and promotion of workers health while minimizing business disruption.

Materials and methods

The process took place in a large company with global international travelers in 5 steps: Review travel health preparation; Create a process to ensure travelers going to risk locations are offered travel services; Develop tools to identify/display risks; Guide users to use the tools; Create a process to maintain data evergreen. The tools were developed by health professionals with a user-friendly and fit-for-purpose interface. A minimal viable product was created with a link to in-country contacts. A final product was produced using workflows and visualization application.

Results

e-Health tools were developed that combined surveillance, risk categorization and real-time updates. The process took 300 hours to implement, and 100 hours/year to maintain. 100% of the risk locations were identified and a contact provided for all locations. Validation to ensure information was evergreen is at 98% with the only complexity from the evolving COVID-19 measures. The tools are still in use even after the pandemic with great success. On average, the company provides ∼5000 travel consultations per year and the tools are saving ∼2500 working hours/year, both health professionals and travelers. In 2023 there were 61k travelers, 17% going to risk locations, and 2% needed additional medical assistance during travel.

Conclusion

Technology for measuring disease risk is relevant to meet demands of an outbreak. Technologies available on the market that display the risks, have been demonstrated to be effective to help health professionals but may need business customization to be user centric. To achieve desired results on customer journey it is recommended to evaluate interface and define indicators to ensure you promote and protect worker health.

Keywords

Travel health, Infectious disease, Technology.

Conflicts of interest

There was no conflicts of interest.

Ethics and financing

No financial support.