- AssistanceCOVID-19 will help to decongest healthcare phones by offering official and trustworthy information
- From today it can be used in Asturias, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura, which join the Community of Madrid
- The Government has already put this app available to all autonomous communities so that all citizens can benefit from this technology
- This solution guarantees maximum security in the use of the population's personal data
- The development has been possible thanks to public-private collaboration with technology companies and the advice of health experts
The official self-diagnosis and information mobile application, AsistenciaCOVID-19 (https://asistencia.covid19.gob.es/), is already available in five new autonomous communities -Asturias, Canarias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura- and has already been made available to all the autonomous regions, thus joining the Community of Madrid, where the pilot project was made .
The objective of this application, which has been launched by the Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, attached to the Third Vice Presidency of the Government and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, is to decongest the health care telephones of the different communities autonomous, while offering official and trustworthy information to citizens.
The tool can be used via mobile or web and allows self-diagnostics, access action recommendations and updated information, and receive reminders to periodically monitor health status. In no case does it constitute a service for medical diagnosis, emergency care or prescription of pharmacological treatments.
The official application will allow for unified and homogeneous data, thereby contributing to the management of the epidemic at the national level. The Government also plans to release the source code so that other official bodies can implement their own versions of the application, adapting the tool to their self-assessment and triage health protocol. This will help guarantee accessibility and equal opportunities by putting technology at the service of society as a whole.
The Government guarantees the general protection and security of the population data that is collected through its use. "Our intention is that all the autonomous communities can access at the same speed the benefits that technology makes available to us in this common fight against the pandemic," said the Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas.
About the collected data
The application, through the request of a series of identification and health data related to the symptoms experienced, allows us to offer recommendations and guidelines for action.
In addition, through the GPS geolocation system of the mobile phone, with the user's permission, the autonomous community in which it is located will be validated to customize the responses based on the protocols of each one of them.
All the data that the application collects is necessary to be able to advise each person. In no case are they used to check compliance with containment measures. Access to data will only be allowed to healthcare professionals and authorized competent authorities.
Personal data will be kept for the duration of the health crisis and, once completed, will be added anonymously to be processed for statistical, research or public policy purposes, for a maximum period of two years.
“We hope that the effort made to create this web application and mobile app will serve to benefit communities around the world in their fight to control COVID-19. In fact, we have already received interest in its use by international organizations that seek to adapt the application to their local environment, with which we are already working to achieve that objective, ”added the Secretary of State.
This solution is the result of the joint effort of the Government of Spain and professionals from various companies involved in its development. Among them, CARTO, ForceManager and mendesaltaren, with the support and collaboration of Telefónica, Ferrovial, Google and Santander, who have donated equipment and capabilities to develop these solutions. In addition, for its development, it has also had the help of experts in law, ethics, programming, mobile applications and health.
