Q&A: HOOS Health Check Helps ‘Put a Box Around COVID,’ Developer Says

HOOS Health Check, a personal health assessment smartphone app and web-based program designed to help users become aware of symptoms related to COVID-19, became available to the University of Virginia community on Aug. 10. The University requires its students, faculty and staff to sign in to HOOS Health Check each day that they plan to be on Grounds.

The app and website display a list of symptoms that could be COVID-related, such as fever, muscle aches or cough, and users must affirm that they do not have any of those symptoms before coming to the University on a given day. If that person has any of the symptoms, even one, they must contact Student Health and Wellness or Employee Health for instructions on how to proceed, such as self-isolating and possibly being tested for COVID-19.

HOOS Health Check is one component of UVA’s multipronged approach to helping the University community stay safe during the pandemic. University administrators, health professionals and information technology professionals from across Grounds worked together at the start of the pandemic to develop HOOS Health Check in conjunction with Charlottesville-based software developer WillowTree.

UVA community members are also encouraged to use COVIDWISE, an exposure notification app developed by the Virginia Department of Public Health.

Students, faculty and staff members are required to use HOOS Health Check each day they plan to be on Grounds.

Dr. Mitch Rosner, the Henry B. Mulholland Professor of Medicine and chair of UVA’s Department of Medicine, played a leading role in making sure that HOOS Health Check is easy to use and as specific as can be to the symptoms of COVID-19. Here, he discusses the app, and each individual’s responsibilities to the community during this pandemic.

Q. What is the idea behind HOOS Health Check?

A. To help people recognize the potential symptoms of COVID-19 at the earliest stage, and to let the University know when individuals are having symptoms. If a person is having symptoms consistent with a possible infection, we want that person to not come to work or attend class, but to isolate and contact the University for instructions, and perhaps get tested as quickly as possible. We also want to determine who their contacts have been, and those people can then quarantine to protect others.

The key, for everybody’s sake, is to put a box around each COVID infection as soon as possible. So, HOOS Health Check is one of our strategies to help people identify their symptoms and quickly report them, and, if appropriate, to get referred for testing.

Q. We are also about to enter the flu season. How does that complicate evaluation for COVID-19?

A. We want to be able to evaluate everyone who has the symptoms of COVID-19. We recognize that there’s a lot of non-specificity around some of the symptoms – such as body aches and a cough – and, because of that, it’s even more important that we get to evaluate people and get them tested to determine if they have COVID-19.

Q. Do we have enough testing kits so that we can do a quick evaluation like that?

A. Right now we do. We feel comfortable with the amount of testing that we can do for people who are displaying symptoms and need evaluation.

Q. Why should young, healthy college students treat this disease as seriously as older or less healthy people?

A. Our success in controlling COVID-19 is dependent on each of us being responsible for one another. If students are really serious about wanting to come back to Grounds, then they need to take the proper measures to keep everyone safe at the University and in Charlottesville. There are people around us who have chronic illnesses, and there are older citizens, people who are more susceptible than healthy young people to getting severe infection. Students must remain aware of this, so that they don’t risk transmitting the virus to somebody who could end up with a very severe case of disease and ending up in the hospital, or worse. This pandemic is a situation where we truly have to act as a community and look out for one another.

Q. In addition to HOOS Health Check, should people also use COVIDWISE, the state’s exposure notification app?

A. Yes, it’s another tool to allow us to do effective contact tracing and get infected people isolated and quarantined as soon as possible. We should use everything at our disposal to keep everybody safe.

Q. What went into the making of HOOS Health Check?

A. It was a great collaboration between public health experts at UVA Health, the Information Technology Services group, administrators in Student Affairs, the provost’s office and other areas – even members of the Board of Visitors. This really is an example of a great effort done in a very short time by many dedicated people.

To download HOOS Health Check, visit the Apple or Google Play store. Use the app every day that you will be on Grounds. If you don’t have a smartphone, you can complete your daily health check on the HOOS Health Check website (not compatible with Internet Explorer) or through a paper form for employees (a printable PDF is available on the ITS website). HOOS Health Check will help you stay focused on your health and direct you to resources if you need them.