BY JENNIFER M. RADIN, GIORGIO QUER, LUCA FOSCHINI
Radin, Ph.D., is an epidemiologist at Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla and lives in Williamsburg, Virginia. Quer, Ph.D., is the director of artificial intelligence at Scripps Research Translational Institute and lives in San Diego. Foschini, Ph.D., is the chief data scientist at Evidation Health and lives in Santa Barbara.
In his recent State of the Union address, President Joe Biden announced that rapid COVID-19 tests and free treatments would be available soon in pharmacies across the country. However, having tests available and leveraging digital health technology at home would be even better. Individuals who are sick and contagious shouldn’t have to leave home to be diagnosed or treated.
In early January, the government did take steps in this direction by offering free COVID-19 tests to every household in the United States by mail. This was a start to delivering accessible testing that can be done anytime and anywhere, but the testing supply was greatly outpaced by demand. Society got a very fast lesson on the value of guidance on how best to use these tests, not just to identify infection, but also to get back to normalcy.
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