MORRISVILLE, N.C. – A Triangle software developer on Monday said workplace symptom screening will likely outlast COVID.

Ed White owns Field2Base, a software development company. His team recently launched an app called Covoporate, which is designed to combine employee self-screening with test results and other information.

White said the problem with relying on employees to self-report symptoms is it's difficult to enforce evenly across large corporations. Moreover, many COVID-19 patients never develop any symptoms, so daily temperature checks aren't completely foolproof. Covoporate is designed to interface with testing labs, so the results of COVID-19 tests can be uploaded to an employer automatically. It can also be synced with Bluetooth-enabled medical devices including thermometers. All of this information goes into an employee's so-called boarding pass, which is used to scan in and out of work and can bar entry if necessary.

“For me to bring my own employees back to work, it is absolutely important that we do it safely for each of the employees as well as the coworkers,” he says.

White's firm is not the only software developer working on the problem. Wake Forest Baptist Health recently launched its own app, called SneezeSafe. White said COVID-19 is unlikely to be the last pandemic society faces, so such apps probably will play a role in stemming future outbreaks as well as seasonal scourges like the flu.

White said Covoporate is already in use by a number of organizations ranging from construction engineering firms to hospitals.