A tech start-up is offering a smartphone application to hospitals that allows coronavirus patients to communicate their needs to nurses without physical interaction, lowering the risk of cluster infections.
Hospital patients usually use the nurse call button when they need something, but those admitted with COVID-19 are placed in isolation wards to keep physical contact with nurses to a minimum to prevent the virus from sickening the staff as well.
The app, developed by Opere, a company established by former nurse Yuka Sawada, lets patients ask nurses to buy things from shops on their behalf, request changes to meal quantities and record their body temperatures. Whatever is inputted appears immediately on screens at the nurses' stations.