covid-19

COVID-19 Rapid Response Innovation Project

Unlock the lock-down with Certify.health COVID19 status certificates

The challenge

Ending the lockdowns brought on by COVID-19 and allowing people to return to work requires a means of quickly checking whether or not an individual has the possibility of transmitting the disease. If there was certification of those who have been tested – or those who have taken a vaccine– it could facilitate the restarting of our economies.

The solution

This project proposes to develop a privacy-by-design COVID19 status certificate – telling whether a person istested and the test results, with a vision of extending into vaccination certificates. The solution would first be available to health care professionals and then other workers.

The project consortium is one month away from piloting verifiable individual immunity and infection test certificates with the Certify.health app. The digital certificate allows a digital audit trail, upstream and downstream from the point-of-diagnosis. It can incorporate broad sources of data into one system that offers appropriate security and GDPR compliance. This would make it possible to trace contacts, validate diagnostic tests and confirm special authorisations – while also protecting privacy.

The Certify.health app will build in the global standards for electronic identity authentication, while including privacy-by-design, anonymity and a citizen-centred approach that are foundational to personal health data in Europe. This system will secure key mechanisms for citizens and authorities to fight the pandemic by providing:

· identity authentication, while protecting anonymity

· proof of point-of-diagnosis of different types of tests, and in the future, vaccinations

· registered result of diagnosis

The duration of immunity, infection and test kit validity would be up to authorities to determine. As new, more reliable diagnostic tests – and vaccines – become available, these would be incorporated in the Certify.health app, to ensure the use of the most effective means for confirming health status.

Expected impact

A GDPR-compliant solution for health certification that protects anonymity while allowing for positive identification of those tested for COVID-19 promises a means to ending the lockdown. If it is possible to confirm quickly whether someone poses a risk of spreading the coronavirus it will be easier to restart the economy.

All Partners

EIT Health Core and Associate Partners

  • Hospital Clínic de Barcelona
  • IDIBAPS
  • ISGLOBAL
  • Université Grenoble Alpes

External partners

Linked third party

  • Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble (CHUGA)