In the coming days, MDA and health funds will send every citizen a daily questionnaire, which will provide a real-time snapshot to the health system of the spread of morbidity in Israel

As part of efforts by the Israeli health system to deal with the Corona virus, the Ministry of Health, HMOs and MDAs, on Sunday, all citizens began answering a short symptom questionnaire every day. In the coming days, all Israeli citizens will be sent a daily questionnaire by the HMOs and MDAs. , With the aim of providing a snapshot of typical symptoms that could imply the spread of the virus, and assisting the health care system in making decisions.

IDF prepares to aggravate the Corona crisis // Photo: IDF Spokesman

The Ministry of Health defines the daily questionnaire as "Corona's" WAZE. There, the more people fill out the anonymous questionnaire every day, the better the health system will have of a picture of the symptoms associated with the spread of corona in Israel. The system was developed for the Ministry of Health by the Israeli start-up, Diagnostic Robotics, in collaboration with the HMOs, MDA, and the Weizmann Institute.

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According to the Ministry of Health, the purpose of the questionnaire is to create a high-resolution epidemiological map, which includes real-time updates, that will provide the health system with a snapshot of typical symptoms that could indicate the spread of morbidity in Israel.

The questionnaire is anonymous, the system does not collect any identifying information, such as, name, telephone number or ID, and no party can contact the respondents to the questionnaire at any stage.

Respondents will be asked to enter the name of the locality and street in which they live, without a house number, so that the geographical map of the symptoms can be produced. Because of the geographical information, it will be possible to examine in which areas there is an increase / decrease in symptoms relevant to the virus. The Ministry of Health emphasizes that distribution of the questionnaire will be gradual in the coming days through the health funds, before the questionnaire will be distributed to the general population every day.

Prof. Ran Blitzer, head of innovation at the General Health Fund and one of the leading partners in planning and formulating the national move: "At this time, we need innovative tools that will provide us with up-to-date intelligence information from the field. We all formulated a questionnaire following the joint article with the Weizmann Institute, and the coordinated activity with the Weizmann Institute's infrastructure vis-à-vis the public, and within the funds with the diagnostics robotics company's infrastructure, will enable maximum coverage and as wide a picture as possible. "