Innovator pitches COVID records game-changer
Published:Tuesday | January 19, 2021 | 12:14 AMJanet Silvera/Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
A COVID-19 testing certification and reporting system created by a Jamaican systems architect could offer a real-time snapshot of management of the disease in public and private health facilities islandwide.
Tagged ‘The OutbrakeR’, many doctors have already tested the state-of-the-art system that produces reports on every communicable disease in the country, including HIV, dengue, Zika, and COVID-19.
Created by Christopher Christie, The OutbrakeR has changed the way doctors across the country report on findings.
Within minutes of a positive or negative test result, particularly COVID-19, the information is available for use by the Ministry of Health & Wellness, says Christie.
He has offered the service free of charge to the Government and says negotiations are ongoing.
“Now we have a fully functional system that handles both public and private sector simultaneously,” said Christie, adding that as soon as a patient is tested, information can be made immediately accessible to the ministry.
“It is a full-fledged system. Nothing falls through the gap,” he told The Gleaner.
Christie has a reputation for developing multiple system applications and some of his biggest clients include business process outsourcing firms.
Verifies identities
The OutbrakeR has been in use since October 2020, seven months after the first COVID-19 case was discovered here. That development, the innovator said, was created specifically to bridge the gap in testing, certifying, and reporting of the disease.
The system verifies the identities of individuals and facilities producing verified results of communicable diseases and can reportedly accommodate all of the island’s medical practitioners and public hospitals here and across the Caribbean.
The digital certificates produced can be used for travel and work-related verification and can be accessed by individuals via text messaging, emails or print.
The specialist in systems integration and architecture said this is not his first foray in the medical technology innovation. He is also behind an electronic medical records system widely used across the country.
Because his studies at the Caribbean Institute of Technology were sponsored by the Government, Christie feels the State should be allowed access without having to pay. He is also willing to share the program with governments of other coronavirus-wracked Caribbean countries at no cost.
“Whatever it takes I am willing to give it to other countries in the region, because COVID-19 is affecting all of us,” said Christie.