Table 1.
Overview of self-reported symptom tracker programs.
| Characteristic | BeatCOVID19Now | COVIDcast | COVIDNearYou | COVID Symptom Tracker | HelpBeatCOVID19 | HowWeFeel |
| Host institution and partners | Swinburne University of Technology | Carnegie Mellon University Delphi Research Group; Facebook | Harvard Medical School; Boston Children’s Hospital; Ending Pandemics; Google; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; Massachusetts General Hospital; King's College London; Stanford University School of Medicine; Zoe Global Limited | University of Alabama; Alabama Department of Public Health | Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Institute for Quantitative Social Science; McGovern Institute; Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Weizmann Institute of Science; Pinterest; Feeding America; Alex’s Lemonade Stand; Chartio; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation |
| Location | Melbourne, Australia | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA | Boston, Massachusetts, USA | Boston, Massachusetts, USA | Birmingham, Alabama, USA | Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| Funding sources | Swinburne University of Technology | None | Ending Pandemics Crowdsourcing | Mass General Wellcome Trust (UK) | University of Alabama | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Crowdsourcing |
| Intended participants | Worldwide, 18+ years | United States residents, 18+ years | United States, Canada, and Mexico residents, 18+ years | United States residents, 18+ years; participants from other internal studies including RCTs | United States residents, 18+ years; particular focus on Alabama and neighboring states | United States residents, 18+ years |
| Date symptom tracker was initiated | March 26, 2020 | April 6, 2020 | March 22, 2020 | April 4, 2020 | Not available | April 3, 2020 |
| Number of responses to datea | 27,000+ | 2,573,240 | 54,000+ | 98,000+ | 57,000+ | 1,000,000+ |
| Mechanism of recruiting participants/platform | Website; app in developmenta | Survey via Facebook | Website |
Apple App Store, Google Play Store | Website |
Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| Follow-up | None | None | None | Daily phone notifications | Text messages every 3 days | None |
| Frequency of reporting | Daily | Daily | Weekly | Live data | Live data | Daily |
| Availability of summary tables for external synthesis/utilization | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Noa |
| Intended audience for the product | Public at large; state and local public health officials; international health organizations | Public at large; state and local public health officials; US policymakers; health care providers; health care systems | Public at large; CDC and national public health organizations; state and local public health officials; researchers; health care providers; health care systems |
Public at large; participants of internal studies | Public at large; neighboring states; state and local health officials; local policymakers | Public at large; state and local public health officials |
| Publicly available data privacy statement | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
aThis data was collected at the time that the synthesis was performed and is subject to change.