A write-up on the efficacy of COVID Watch based on [this](https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-2019) recently published analysis on the effectiveness of the program. The program was designed and continues to run on Way to Health and has managed over 20,000 patients thus far. In summary, it reduces the odds of mortality by 68% by connecting with patients sooner and getting them into the hospital asap when appropriate. At the height of the pandemic, the data indicates that the program was saving at least one life every other day.

M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS, Anna U. Morgan, MD, MSc, MSHP, David A. Asch, MD, MBA, Ruiying Xiong, MS, Austin S. Kilaru, MD, MSHP, Kathleen C. Lee, MD, David Do, MD, Ari B. Friedman, MD, PhD, Zachary F. Meisel, MD, MPH, MSHP, Christopher K. Snider, MPH, Doreen Lam, BA, Andrew Parambath, BA, Christian Wood, BA, Chidinma M. Wilson, BA, BS, Michael Perez, BS, BA, Deena L. Chisholm, MPH, Sheila Kelly, MPH, Christina J. O’Malley, MHA, Nancy Mannion, DNP, RN, CEN, Ann Marie Huffenberger, DBA, RN, NEA-BC, Susan McGinley, CRNP, Mohan Balachandran, MA, MS, Neda Khan, BS, Nandita Mitra, PhD, Krisda H. Chaiyachati, MD, MPH, MSHP

AIM

A secondary analysis of data from Watch patients showed that enrollment in an automated text messaging service among community-dwelling adults newly diagnosed with COVID-19 in outpatient settings was associated with reduced mortality (up to 68%), potentially explained by increased and earlier presentation to the ED by those benefiting from early interventions. These results reveal a model for outpatient health system management of patients with COVID-19 and possibly other conditions where the early detection of clinical declines is critical.

We recently introduced a new component - or rather set of components - to our infrastructure to improve our ability to monitor the operations of Way to Health. Prometheus and Grafana give us clear visual metrics for how things are working under the hood.

This is part 6 of the series on Way to Health's involvement in helping address the pandemic. This post focuses on the design and launch of the COVID SAFE project. As the Penn health system and the University were looking at re-opening, the one concern was ongoing testing (this was before there was a vaccine in the picture). It was also felt that surveillance testing is critical in getting visibility into and managing the spread of the disease. This post outlines the COVID SAFE project which did this at scale using Saliva based testing methods and Way to Health.