Lifestyle

Malaysian COVID-19 virtual self-test application – Wired PR Lifestyle Story

Since COVID-19 was launched in Malaysia in 2020, Dr. Chan Hai Feng and his team have been constantly examining the people at his clinic along with the workplace staff.

“We realized that this ongoing performance was taking up too much of our staff time and also putting a lot of unnecessary risk on the audience and our staff on our performances,” Dr. Chan told the Vulcan Post. This slowed down the treatment process for patients in the clinic.

Then came the endemic in 2021, where Malaysia returned to work, students returned to school and the tourism sector revived. To manage the risks of the spread of the virus, most premises began to require visitors to submit a negative self-test result at home.

“Test kits, especially saliva kits that users buy in pharmacies, are the same as those used by doctors in the clinic,” Dr. Chan said. However, self-tests may not be accurate, as most are conducted privately and are not authenticated by licensed medical professionals.

If test kits are found in the hands of malicious users, this can also lead to the possibility of manipulating the results.

Convinced that the screening of COVID-19 could be safer, easier and more efficient, Dr. Chan assembled a team and invested RM500,000 in capital to launch it. CLEA In 2021.

The application is a virtual evaluation platform of COVID-19, where users can verify and authenticate their self-tests by qualified doctors.

Recording samples

Once you have registered with your IC and phone number in CLEA, you will start COVID-19 Virtual Screening (VCS), which requires one credit (RM15 per credit) to use. The entire VCS process takes you 6 steps from the registration process to submitting your results.

First, you will be asked to choose which rapid test kit (RTK) you are using, including saliva, nasal, or whistle tests. CLEA is partnering with Gmate, so its RTK purchases come with an additional VCS credit.

Alternatively, the Medical Device Authority (MDA) also operates pharmacy self-test kits.

G-mate Kit Overview / Image Credit: Vulcan Post

Step 2 is to prepare a self-test kit to prepare a permanent marker and make sure that you have less than 30% of the battery left in your phone. This is because the whole test process can take up to 30 minutes and cannot be interrupted in any way.

You will then be able to verify your identity by taking a photo of both sides of the IC with a selfie.

You are then given an exclusive TAC code to write your number on the cassette you are using. It’s important to make sure that your handwriting is legible and that the pen ink is dark enough to be seen while recording it on your phone’s selfie camera.

We’ll then walk you through the process of finding out how to properly frame yourself and test materials in the recording that will begin after these instructions.

To get started, users will need to submit a labeled cassette to the camera. Allow 20 minutes to test, from saliva into a tube, shaking until the sample falls into the cassette.

Recording ends automatically after 20 minutes.

Some VCS screenshots

Most RTKs require a 15-minute wait, and when the results appear, you can take a picture of it in the CLEA application and send it along with the video recording.

Although CLEA says that the materials submitted will be checked by professional doctors within 24 hours, I got mine within 90 minutes. Once verified, users will be issued with certificates that can be used as a ticket for any premises that require examination test reports.

Reduce concern about user errors

Personally, I had my doubts about the CLEA system, as I believed that self-testing was subject to user error. But after going through the whole process and understanding how CLEA’s exclusive TAC and QR codes verify the time stamps and test results, I was relieved.

In addition, if CLEA member professionals consider any part of your sampling process to be inaccurate, they may mark your results as invalid and you may need to retry.

The app had a very clean and intuitive user interface, and I gave it a negative!

Of course, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are still the gold standard with 100% accuracy for diagnosing COVID-19. But Dr. Chan assured that home test kits have more than 90% accuracy rates and have been evaluated by institutions such as the Institute for Medical Research, Sungai Buloh Hospital, the University of Malay, and so on.

He also said that the most important thing for a performance is to take samples. “Not everyone knows how to get a proper sample, be it saliva or runny nose, so here at CLEA it is up to the users to make sure our panel clinics receive the correct samples,” he shared.

With the correct method of collecting samples, the entire screening process performed by the users themselves can be as accurate as that performed by a medical professional.

Designed with medical and business in mind

In determining the cost of the credits required for the application’s VCS, the CLEA team preferred to make it as affordable as possible for users, while finding a way to compensate for physicians ’time.

“This isn’t an easy job, but we finally set the price around a Starbucks Grande Caramel Frappuccino Blended Coffee,” Dr. Chan said. “And we managed to find a sweet spot for all of our panels as well.”

In addition, the CLEA platform is also equipped with an HR management portal that allows employers to regularly monitor their employees ’last screen date and COVID-19 status.

CLEA Idea Process / Image Credit: CLEA

This will allow companies to plan their staffing needs in advance with data from the management portal, thereby reducing unnecessary disruptions in workplace operations as a result of an occurrence. At the same time, they are able to start work immediately when staff arrive, without the need for multiple hand-made projections.

The service can also be extended to high-traffic venues that are vulnerable to the expansion of COVID-19 clusters, such as schools, events, hotels and shopping malls, to name a few.

With regard to business package fees, the CLEA determines them on a case-by-case basis, depending on the frequency and volume of the performance.

To date, CLEA has more than 54,000 application downloads, 50,000 active users and more than 30 corporate clients, including Jaya Grocer, Healthland Wellness and Uncle Chang Sipadan Resort.

As CLEA is an endemic-related service, Dr. Chan’s focus is on scaling and presenting this platform to more users or even countries in need.

– // –

Although using CLEA requires additional commissions and a longer timeframe before confirming RTK results, some may be worth the cost. This is to ensure that the quality and results of the test are legitimate and accurate.

After all, not everyone has the same ethics and civic awareness to take a new test each time they participate. Some may recycle old test images, endangering the safety of everyone around them.

So CLEA can be a valuable solution when it comes to minimizing the risk of having that person in a social circle, especially for companies where irresponsible people can’t afford to interrupt further operations.

  • Learn more about CLEA here.
  • Read about other Malaysian startups we have introduced here.

Featured Image Credit: Dr. Chan Hai Feng, Founder and CEO of CLEA




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