Military doctor develops free app that helps with coronavirus diagnosis

Captain Heo Jun-nyeong of the Armed Force Medical Command (AFMC) has developed a smartphone application that can help doctors and patients with the 2019 novel coronavirus diagnosis. Seeing his colleagues struggling to compare a patient’s symptoms to a list from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 34-year-old military doctor developed an app that determines the level of severity of the virus on the side and launched it early this month. The app is available free of charge.

If a patient inputs information such as their pulse, blood pressure and body temperature, the app tells them how severe their case is. Captain Heo also developed an application for “COVID-19 checks” that tells the user if they need to undergo a further test at one of the selective hospitals or community health centers based on the information provided by the user. Both services are also available on the web at ncovcheck.com.

Having studied computer programming since elementary school, Captain Heo made two applications while in medical school: One that helps students track their study time and the other that gives stroke patients the information about the nearest emergency rooms.


skytree08@donga.com·