New App For Dallas County Residents Calculates Risk Of COVID-19 Exposure
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Detecting COVID-19 isn't easy, but what if you could prevent exposure before it even happened? That's the idea behind MyPCI, the brainchild of Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation.
"We have and continue to have data from Dallas County Health and Human Services on confirmed cases. We're able to use that to build and create this algorithm," said Steve Miff, President and CEO of Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, or PCCI.
The machine-learning algorithm uses geo-mapping and hot-spotting technology to calculate a proximity risk of exposure.
"We look at how many people within about 50 feet of you have COVID actively, meaning within the last 14 days. And then the second piece is how close is the nearest person to you with COVID," said Albert Karam, PCCI's Director of Data Governance and Analytics.
Then the free app generates a daily personal risk score - from low to very high.
"What we observed is that an individual that has a very high or high proximity index is subsequently seven times more likely to actually get COVID," said Miff.
The first of its kind, they hope MyPCI will help curb the spread of COVID at a dire time.
"I think this app empowers every individual to make informed choices," said Dr. Manjula Julka, PCCI's Vice President of Clinical Innovation.
"Our goal is to help people, help particularly the most vulnerable, and if we can bring this context to folks and have them be able to use it in a meaningful way, we feel like we've done our part," said Miff.
The app is for Dallas County residents only. It will be accessible to the public beginning Wednesday on PCCI's website, as well as Parkland Hospital's and Dallas County Health and Human Services.
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