{"id":380,"date":"2021-02-12T12:05:40","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T10:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/?p=380"},"modified":"2023-12-08T18:41:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T16:41:18","slug":"the-humlog-challenge-solutions-presented-4-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/2021\/02\/12\/the-humlog-challenge-solutions-presented-4-5\/","title":{"rendered":"The HUMLOG Challenge solutions presented \u2013 4\/5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">12.02.2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We continue with our blog series including 5 articles presenting the results of the science competition organised by the Global Business School Network and the HUMLOG Institute at Hanken School of Economics: The HUMLOG Challenge. Below you find the text written by Team WU from Austria.\u202fTheir team performed in the second place of the contest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Team WU<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Rucha Deshpande, Vanessa Klackl, Markus Domevscek, Michael Pesendorfer, Tobias Damberger <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reminder: The problem addressed in our report and the\nproposed solution were&nbsp;relevant in the middle of October, when the\ncompetition&nbsp;was conducted.&nbsp;Here is a brief summary of that report.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Context and introduction&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In&nbsp;the&nbsp;fall of 2020, rising cases\nof&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;combined with the on-going flu-season presented&nbsp;an\nadded challenge to the city of Vienna: testing&nbsp;more symptomatic patients\nwith a limited fleet of 30 mobile testing units&nbsp;(note:&nbsp;asymptomatic\npeople were tested at stationary testing locations with a much larger\ncapacity). We addressed this challenge by focusing on three factors: 1)\noptimize routing for&nbsp;the&nbsp;current fleet of&nbsp;mobile\ntesting&nbsp;vehicles and explore complementary testing methods 2)\nincrease&nbsp;the&nbsp;role of IT&nbsp;in improved&nbsp;testing management 3)\nreduce pressure on existing testing resources through better public awareness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To prevent both the healthcare system and the overall economy from\ncollapsing due to&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;effects, the Austrian\ngovernment&nbsp;has&nbsp;been&nbsp;investing heavily in testing and contact\ntracing. They developed a hotline that people call based on predefined\nguidelines and paramedics are sent home to conduct tests on suspected patients.\nWhile this approach was successful in March \/ April,\nthere&nbsp;were&nbsp;limitations and additional challenges to this testing\nstrategy, especially&nbsp;during flu season.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>First, both manpower as well as equipment and infrastructure&nbsp;were&nbsp;limited.&nbsp;At the time, there&nbsp;were&nbsp;only 30 paramedic cars available for mobile testing,&nbsp;in addition to&nbsp;80 bikes from a delivery company,&nbsp;and&nbsp;there&nbsp;was&nbsp;criticism over slow and inefficient testing.&nbsp; <\/li><li>Second, there&nbsp;were&nbsp;problems with efficient testing management. For example, after reporting symptoms of illness, people often&nbsp;waited&nbsp;on average 2-3 days to get tested by paramedics. This increased&nbsp;both risk of spread and anxiety\/confusion in symptomatic patients.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The combination of rising&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;cases plus increasing\nsymptomatic patients during flu season,&nbsp;made it\nclear&nbsp;that&nbsp;mobile testing units would&nbsp;remain integral for\nVienna\u2019s management of the pandemic. Therefore, testing symptomatic patients at\nhome required&nbsp;better efficiency, especially&nbsp;with a limited fleet of\nmobile testing vehicles.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Solution&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By using the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) geoprocessing tool in ArcGIS,\nwe analyzed optimal routings for the 30 mobile testing vehicles in\nVienna.&nbsp;When setting up our&nbsp;Vehicle&nbsp;Routing&nbsp;Problem&nbsp;in\nArcGIS, the main question was how to maximize the efficiency of the current fleet\nof mobile testing vehicles. For this purpose, a VRP with multiple vehicles and\nlocation data was used to find out how efficiently the current fleet is\nmanaged. We could then address whether additional\nvehicles&nbsp;were&nbsp;needed to meet certain goals or if the current fleet&nbsp;could\nbe&nbsp;managed in a more efficient way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As always, there are&nbsp;certain&nbsp;limitations to the findings.\nSince some of the data&nbsp;needed for this analysis&nbsp;had&nbsp;not\nyet&nbsp;been&nbsp;published (or likely never will be, such as location data\nfor tested patients), assumptions needed to be&nbsp;made. This is why&nbsp;we\ncreated&nbsp;a random set of patient locations by generating random coordinates\nwithin the Vienna borders.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the VRP,&nbsp;the&nbsp;30 cars were&nbsp;sufficient&nbsp;to\nhit the target of 1000 tests&nbsp;per day&nbsp;in several realistic scenarios,\nwhich meant&nbsp;that&nbsp;even more tests&nbsp;were&nbsp;possible with the\ncurrent fleet.&nbsp;Therefore,&nbsp;as our routing optimization results showed\nthat&nbsp;vehicle&nbsp;capacities were&nbsp;sufficient&nbsp;for given\ntargets,&nbsp;we&nbsp;focused on&nbsp;supplemental&nbsp;solutions&nbsp;to\nimprove efficiency and reduce pressure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>First,&nbsp;additional time for&nbsp;personal protective equipment&nbsp;(PPE)&nbsp;changes after each test could&nbsp;be reduced by either switching to or adding \u201cgargle tests\u201d&nbsp;(which can be carried out without PPE)&nbsp;along with the current nasal swab method.&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/li><li>Second, we suggested&nbsp;the introduction of a website\/app, using best practices from other countries, that&nbsp;allows users to find&nbsp;the optimal testing option and booking appointments&nbsp;through a convenient single web portal.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Third, we explored&nbsp;how to reduce pressure on testing resources during flu season by increasing public awareness and support in staying home.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Impacts and implications&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>New website + App for ease of&nbsp;access&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taking California\u2019s&nbsp;COVID-19.ca.gov website and UK\u2019s NHS&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;app as best&nbsp;practices, we recommended&nbsp;building a website and app for Vienna that fulfills&nbsp;the&nbsp;following functions:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Find a testing option and book appointments:&nbsp;Users can select testing options based on several criteria (symptomatic or asymptomatic,&nbsp;met&nbsp;a&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;positive patient,&nbsp;been to a&nbsp;high-risk&nbsp;area,&nbsp;etc.). Once they select their best option, they can book the appointment online, through&nbsp;a single&nbsp;website, for all the different&nbsp;public&nbsp;testing options&nbsp;available.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Web Triage:&nbsp;If you have symptoms and call&nbsp;the hotline&nbsp;1450, the operators perform a triage on the caller&nbsp;by&nbsp;asking a set of basic questions to determine next steps. We&nbsp;suggested&nbsp;offering&nbsp;the first basic triage through the website, where symptomatic patients enter their symptoms through a series of basic questions currently used by the 1450 phone operators. This would significantly reduce the burden on 1450 calls. If a doctor needs to talk to the patient, they receive a call back.&nbsp;Furthermore, if mobile testing needs to be conducted, patients&nbsp;book the appointment themselves. During this process it can also be determined and stated whether the patient qualifies for the \u201cgargle&nbsp;test\u201d.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Ease of access:&nbsp;In addition to the website, a mobile version of this through an app (preferably an extension of the current \u201cStop Corona\u201d app, which is a voluntary initiative from the Austrian government&nbsp;for contact tracing)&nbsp;could be provided,&nbsp;that is capable of the same&nbsp;functions.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interestingly,&nbsp;after our project ended,&nbsp;the city of Vienna did introduce a website to check your symptoms in addition to the hotline,&nbsp;and while it does not include all our suggested functions, it is certainly a step in the right direction.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Build more grassroots&nbsp;support<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For a community project to be successful, we need not only top-down solutions described above but also bottom-up solutions to make the efforts sustainable. Looking at the rising&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;positive&nbsp;cases, especially in age group 25-34, we&nbsp;recommended&nbsp;reinforcing&nbsp;the message of StayAtHome using social media.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We thought of a social media\ncampaign using a similar slogan to Breast Cancer Runs, where participants\nindicate&nbsp;a person&nbsp;for whom they are&nbsp;running; in&nbsp;this case\nthey would say whom&nbsp;they are \u201cstaying home\nfor\u201d&nbsp;i.e.,&nbsp;#IStayHomeFor. This reinforces both meaning and bond for\nthe efforts. This would reinforce the message that even if SARS-Cov2 can be\nless dangerous for younger people, it is a community responsibility to care for\nothers who are vulnerable and be careful to prevent the spread.&nbsp;<br>\nA few weeks after our project,\nAustria actually had to go into a 2<sup>nd<\/sup>&nbsp;lockdown;&nbsp;this\ndemonstrated&nbsp;that reducing&nbsp;the&nbsp;pressure on testing and medical\nresources was&nbsp;paramount in&nbsp;containing&nbsp;the spread&nbsp;and\nmanaging the pandemic more effectively.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>12.02.2021 We continue with our blog series including 5 articles presenting the results of the science competition organised by the Global Business School Network and the HUMLOG Institute at Hanken <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/2021\/02\/12\/the-humlog-challenge-solutions-presented-4-5\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}