NEHA
Introducing Aquatic Inspector: A CDC iPad App to Streamline Pool Inspections
Hello everyone and welcome to the presentation " Introducing Aquatic Inspector: a CDC iPad App to Streamline Pool Inspections."To ask questions about this presentation, please join the presenters in the networking lounge at the designated time listed on the agenda.I would now like to introduce Jocelyn Cozzo and Sarah Pomerantz from Communication Health Inc., and Commander Jasen Kunz from the CDC Model Aquatic Health Code Team at the National Center for Environmental Health.
Thank you.This is Sarah Pomerantz from Communicate Health.Welcome everyone and thanks for joining us today.We're excited to tell you about an exciting project and an app that we're in the process of developing called the "Aquatic Inspector."Next slide.And here is our quick preview of it.We'll be walking through the app and demo later on.Next slide.
So, first, a little bit about the project team, Communicate Health is health communication and education firm that specializes in plain language writing and user-centered design, and we partnered with the team from the National Center for Environmental Health on this project.And just some quick introductions.
Commander Jasen Kunz is a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service at CDC's National Center for Environmental Health.He's the Model Aquatic Health Code co-lead for CDC, and Jasen also leads projects that strengthen state, tribal, and local environmental health services.
Jocelyn Cozzo is a front-end web developers at Communicate Health and she leads the user center designs for the Aquatic Inspector iPad app.She works on several high-traffic federal websites for health professionals and consumers.And important to this project, she's a huge advocate to developing health websites and tools that are accessible and simple.
And, again, I'm Sarah Pomerantz, and I'm a project director at Communicate Health, and I oversee the User Center'sdesign and development of the Aquatic Inspector iPad app.I have over eight years of experience in web and communication product development for public and environmental health agencies, and we're, again, excited to share this preview of this app with you today.Next slide, and next.
Today we'll be walking you through the development process for the aquatic inspector app.We're going to start with a brief background on the MAC for those of you who aren't familiar.We'll explain the goals of our project and talk about how we use human-centered design in creating this app.We'll walk through a short demo and close the discussion with next steps and what's on the horizon for us.Before we jump into that, I will turn it over to Jasen on some more background on the model aquatic health code.Jasen.
Slide, please.At the CDC our Healthy Swimming Program has been built around keeping the health benefits of swimming while reducing disease, disability, and injury in this ever-expanding aquatics industry.It's one of the top activities in the United States, with over one-third of the population in the water annually, and it's estimated that we have over one billion visits to swimming pools annually, and it has numerous health benefits, which includes improving mood, bone health, quality of life, and even reduces disability.Next slide.
However, there still are public health issues detracting from aquatics benefits, and they ranges from drowning to spinal cord injuries to indoor air quality issues, which are becoming of increasing concern as we move towards large indoor waterparks, where we have bather immersion times, employee immersion times in the water of up to eight hours.And we have pool chemical-associated injuries and waterborne outbreaks are significantly on increase and that's largely due to the emergence of cryptosporidium, which is a chlorine tolerant pathogen, meaning it will live in a chlorinated pool for days.And we see a high rate of pool closures, with around 12% of public pools and spas, closed during routine inspections.Next slide.
So what was CDC's response to this data?CDC formed a stakeholder group of aquatics industry, public health, and academia to develop the model aquatic health code.The model aquatic health code is for public swimming pools as FDA food code is for public restaurants, and it's a free science-based resource to improve health and safety in public swimming pools, which would include pools, hot tubs, spas in hotels, apartment complexes, neighborhoods.This would also cover waterparks and other aquatic facilities, and it's all encompassing, addressing the design, construction, operation and maintenance, policy and management of these aquatic venues.Next.
So why create the model aquatic health code.Well, first of all, there is no federal regulatory agency responsible for aquatics facilities.Most of the aquatics health and safety research exists at the Centers for Disease Control.We know that 68% of state and local health departments regulate, inspect, and license public swimming pools.While 68% is high, I ask why not a 100% of health departments regulate, inspect, or license public swimming pools, and it can be hypothesized that it may be due to the lack of some federal guidance, such as the model aquatic health code.You know, I know that there is significant variability in the standards and requirements that exist, and they're often outdated.It takes significant time and resources, and scientific justification for these health departments at the state and local level to create and update the codes.Next.
So the MAHC Scope, it covers all areas of public health concern.This would include illness, injury, drowning.It's publicvenue oriented.It is not for the backyard or the private pool, and it would cover exposures to the water, the air, and other facility exposures like slip, trip, and fall, or chemical safety that impact the health swimmers and the facility users.But there would be other areas to the building codes.For example, we may identify in the model aquatic health code that a rinse shower is needed before a patron goes down a water slide; however, we would default to the plumbing code where it actually designs the piping associated with that rinse shower.And it focuses on facility types that are manmade, they're treated, this is only chlorinated or brominated swimming pools that are recirculated water venues.This would even include health-care-based pools and therapy pools.So think of it is as any type of public pool exposure the model aquatic health code is intended to cover.Next.
So how do we keep the model aquatic health code up to date?Well the CDC worked with stakeholders to develop a consult for the model aquatic health code, which is a non-profit organization, and it was established in 2013 to manage updates to the MAHC amongst other things.It has an administration and operation such as bylaws, board of directors, and an executive director, which is Doug Sacket, and it also includes committees such as the technical review committee, which considers change requests or changes to the model aquatic health code and reviews them from a scientific standpoint.And also there's ad hoc committees; for example, the costs of the model aquatic health code has several research committees going on right now, where they're looking at topics such as acoustic design for aquatic facilities, or even chlorinator sizing.And the council for the model aquatic health code, if this sounds familiar, it is based around the concept of the conference for food protection, which is a nonprofit organization that was developed by FDA and stakeholders to provide updates to the FDA food code.
So, most importantly, the change request go through a conference process, which is held every two years, and we're getting ready to start on our second change request period in January, which will then conclude in October with the conference for the model aquatic health code where membership will vote on changes to the model aquatic health codes.And CDC also receives and reviews and incorporates those changes into the next version of the model aquatic health code, which will come out in 2018.And that concludes my brief overview of the model aquatic health code.And I will now introduce Sarah Pomerantz from Communicate Health.
Thank you, Jasen.We're going to talk a little bit more about the goals of this project that build on the work that Jasen and the council have done.Next slide.So the purpose of the aquatic inspector iPad app is really threefold.We understand that there is evidence-based guidance in the model aquatic health code, and we want to use this application to get users to implement it across the country, we want to look at opportunities to streamline the inspection process, and we want to put the MAHC into a user friendly visual format that can help folks save time.Next slide.
A lot went into making the app as user friendly as possible.We started with a paper form, and the full model aquatic health code guidance.We wanted the experience of filling out the form in a mobile app or a tablet app to be similar to filling out a paper form but even easier.So throughout this presentation we'll discuss how we accomplish that.Next.
There are a few huge advantages of a digital tool over a paper form.You can embed reference materials and tips to help inspectors complete the form accurately and support the inspection process.The iPad's camera also will allow inspectors to attach photos to reports and assist with documentation.The app will let you easily copy over facility and menu information if you're going to be using that text more than once.So, for example, if you're returning to do the inspection you don't have to fill out information again by hand.Also, when you enter fields like phone numbers, zip code, or e-mail addresses, that might need to be formatted a certain way.You have to make sure that you've done that correctly, and that helps with data standardization, and finally, you can also use the app to store reports for future use and reference.So these are some of the advantages of translating this paper form into a tablet application.Next.
Before we dive into the app, I want to back up a bit and talk about something we called human-centered design.When we talk about human-centered design we really mean that you've involved the end users or your audience in the design and development of a product, a message, or campaign.It's a simple idea but one that can sometimes fall to the wayside if you have tight budgets or tight timelines on a project.At Communicate Health we're really committed to involving users as co-creators in the products that we work on, and this human-centered design or sometimes called user-centered design, it's a crucial part of our work.I'll talk a little bit about this concept, and hopefully you'll get to see this sort of in action throughout our presentation.
So we like to start every project with a clear plan and goal, so kind of starting at the top left corner of this graphic.Then we ask users about their needs and wants.So doing some formative research, identifying pain points in existing workflows for example.We develop a first draft, whether that's a design mockup, a wire frame, a draft of a factsheet, or in this case of a prototype of an iPad app.And then we begin adapting it.We ask users what they think about it.We may tweak based on their feedback, and, of course, an important part of this process is measuring how it performs after it gets into users' hands.Next slide.
So every project looks a little different in terms of how we go through this human-centered design process.Developing this aquatic inspector application, we had a wealth of subject matter expertise from the team at CDC.We benefitted from Jasen's work and the council's work on the model aquatic health code guidance.We also were able to get tips and feedback from local pool inspectors who helped us refine these design.So we conducted preliminary prototype testing earlier on in this process to get some insight on how this would be used in the field.And right now we're planning upcoming usability testing, where we'll get to watch folks use the app and tell us more what they think about it before it's final launch.
Next, I'm going to turn this presentation over to my colleague, Jocelyn, who is going to be doing a quick walk through and demonstration of the app.Jocelyn.
Hi.I'm Jocelyn.And like Sarah said, I'm the develop leader responsible for shepherding the aquatic inspector app from the planning stage through to the iTunes store.We kind of like to actually demonstrate the app for you through a series of videos.I do want to note that this is a prototype of the app, which means that it is not yet final.There are some pieces that are still in development.And we'll also expect to continue to tweak the app as we get feedback from users.Let's get started with our first inspections.
This is what the app will look like as the user opens it up from their iPad.This first screen we're looking at shows inspections that are in progress and those that have been completed.You can toggle between these using these two buttons at the top.However, we are looking at a brand new app right now, so there are no inspections report currently saved.To start an inspections, we click "New inspection form."And now we're on the landing page for this new form.All of the information in this first tab "Basics," must be completed before you can navigate to any of the other tasks and topics.Error message also let you know if you have missed any of these fields so this you don't have to guess where to fill them in.The sections of the paper form are represented by the tabs at the top the screen and are organized to follow the general flow of an inspection.
Once you've completed the basics, you can fill in the other tests in whatever order works best for inspecting this particular facility.You can save the facility and department information you input for later so you don't need to type the same text in over and over again.
Let's talk about how we're going to manage the saved information.This screen is showing an example of what you will see once you've done a couple of inspections and have more than one saved facility.You can choose a different facility or you can edit its information.Say, for example, if you want to change the address or if your facility has a new owner.You can add a new facility here as well, and use that for this inspection or for future inspections.A complete list of saved facilities is available from the menu in the upper left corner.Here you can delete facilities, view them, or edit them.
Once you've entered a facility and selected your department information you can add venues to your reports.Each inspection requires one venue, but you can add up to three.As you'll see later, the app is designed to generate separate inspection forms for each venue you add.For each venue you'll be able to input more specific information on the form as you go through it.Now that we've entered at least one venue, we can go to the other tasks in the form.Here is our first venue main pool on the pool and spa page.Skipping back to the basics tab, I'll input two more venuesso that you can see what will look like.
One thing I want to note as I am typing is that the date and time are generated for you as soon as you start your inspections so that you have an accurate time stamp.The timeout time stamp will be generated for you once you click the report complete form.The venue types and the drop-down menus here match max code specifications, but you can use whatever venue identifier your local agency has in place.Now that we have got three venues we'll be able to see in the following tabs the three venues appears separately so that you can fill them all in.Here is the spray, the main pool, and our kids' pool.
Let's dive into one of these venues.Here's where we get into marking items as in or out of compliance, or as not applicable or not observed.Again, I'm filling this out for each of the three venues I've added in the basics tab.If you mark an item out of compliance, a box pops out below so you can add additional information, such as a comment to explain why this item is not compliance or if this is in repeat violation or if the violation was corrected while you were present.You can also set a correct buy date if you need to revisit the site.
I also want to point out a couple of reference materials we built into the app.The icons to the left of each item are what we like to call a cheat sheet.They're short descriptions of each compliance item to help the inspector easily understand the code.However, if the inspector wants to reference the full MAHC, they can click the book icon and it will bring them to specific section of the MAHC where the item is referenced.These are still under development but we'll have a little bit more about them in a minute.Almost all of the items are required, but there are a couple of optional fields where you can input some measures, such as air temperature for that day, or the temperature of the water.