Belizean Programmer Develops a Coronavirus Active Management System
CAMS is an acronym for the Coronavirus Active Management System, an app created by Belizean economist and programmer, Renison Crawford. Crawford is currently pursuing a post-graduate degree in Austria, but recently returned home and wants to assist the country in its fight against the deadly novel coronavirus. So what’s so special about his app? He says that in its design, he managed to eliminate the need for twenty-four-seven internet access to track a person – be that a Belizean or tourist – and speaks of minimizing the risk of contracting the virus. CAMS would allow for an individual’s biometric data, which could be accessed through your social security number, and tracks where you’ve been over the last seven days. This information, Crawford says, can help in mapping and tracking exercises by health officials.
Renison Crawford
Renison Crawford, Programmer, CAMS
“I created a system designed uniquely for this purpose—to operate in an environment where you have limited internet access population has limited access to technology on a whole so you can’t hold people accountable but the businesses responsible as the gatekeepers in the system. So businesses or public spaces such as banks, hospitals, pharmacies so forth, will be the gatekeepers of this system. And the way it works is that a user, if they want to enter some premise or some location or a bus, they would have to scan their QR code or give their identification number, which would be their social security number. The app is simple to use, it can be downloaded by any device—whether it is a smart phone, a computer—as long as the person has a browser. Now it is designed with a system where you have hubs and users; the hubs are the ones required to have internet access, but the users don’t. The users don’t even need to have the app in all honesty. All they would need is their social security number or a QR code that they can download and print. But for convenience, I would recommend that they have the app on their phones. As long as they scan you at that moment, at that time, at that location, you will be registered in the system and everyone else who enters after you over a period of time, we’ll keep a tab on. So, say a week later you contracted the virus, everyone you came in contact with through those different locations and hubs, will be notified that they may have been in contact with someone who may have tested positive for COVID-19.”
Crawford is hoping to gift the app to health or tourism officials to assist in our pandemic response. He says Belizeans need not worry about privacy or stigma as the data collected will be accessed only by Ministry of Health officials when a positive case is identified.
