A new app from Microsoft and healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group will ask workers a series of questions to determine their potential exposure to COVID-19, either clearing them for work or directing them into a testing process that will notify both them and their employer of the results.
The app, called ProtectWell, is latest in a wave of new technologies designed to support efforts to bring people back to work safely as the pandemic subsides. The companies say they will offer the app free of charge to U.S. employers.
“As businesses begin to reopen, employers will need to monitor and manage their workforce for COVID-19 symptoms to help ensure those at risk of spreading the virus stay home until cleared by medical providers,” said Judson Althoff, vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business, in a news release.
UnitedHealth Group, the Minnesota-based health insurance and technology company, with a market value of more than $280 billion, is already offering the app to its frontline healthcare workers.
Microsoft also says it will deploy ProtectWell for its employees in the US as part of its return-to-work plan. The company employs more than 92,000 people in the country, including more than 55,000 in the Seattle region. Microsoft has given employees the option to work from home through at least October.
United Health and Microsoft join a growing number of tech and healthcare companies developing COVID-19 screening and tracking technology for themselves and others, including Appian, Collective Health, PwC and tech giants Apple and Google.
Unlike some other apps, ProtectWell does not support contact-tracing. But like others launching services in this area, UnitedHealth and Microsoft are walking a tightrope of privacy and public health in deploying the technology, including regulatory requirements to keep employee medical and personnel data separate from each other.
“UnitedHealth Group will maintain control over protected health care data and will manage opt-in and consent requirements needed from app users,” the companies say. “Microsoft will not have access to identifiable information shared via the ProtectWell app. De-identified workforce health trends and analytics information will help employers and policymakers make informed occupational and public health decisions.”
It’s the latest implementation of Microsoft’s HealthCare Bot service to address COVID-19. The US Centers for Disease Control is among other organizations using the Microsoft technology. The ProtectWell app runs on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, and the companies say it will take advantage of Azure’s security and privacy protections.
