COVID SMELL TRACKER

An app-based research study

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected millions of people around the world. Anosmia, the loss of smell, is a widespread symptom affecting up to 60% of those infected. We need your support to better understand how our smell and taste is affected by this novel virus.

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About the disease

Anosmia
(loss of smell)

The loss of smell is one of the most common symptoms seen in COVID positive patients, now affecting millons of people. In many people, anosmia is an early sign and will eventually resolve on its own. In others, however, the loss of smell can persist for long periods of time and can even become permanent. When managing anosmia, we first need to categorize it as conductive or neural.

Conductive anosmia occurs when there is either too much swelling in the nose or something is physically blocking the odors from reaching the smell (olfactory) nerve fibers. This type of anosmia is usually more straightforward to treat, since once the nasal obstruction is managed the sense of smell will spontaneously return to normal.

Neural anosmia occurs in two ways: 1) the receptors of the olfactory nerve in the nose are injured and therefore unable to transmit the sensation of odor to the brain or 2) the parts of the brain responsible for processing the smell signal become damaged.

Unfortunately, the exact cause of COVID-19 related anosmia is still controversial. Studies examining COVID patients with MRI scans suggest that it may be neural, as direct disruption of the olfactory nerve fibers cause this area to light up on brain scans. Other reports suggest the anosmia may be conductive from disruption or damage to the tissues that surround the nerves, thereby blocking odors from reaching the nerve endings. Because of these conflicting theories, the exact pathogenesis of injury is still widely unknown.

How can I help?

Report your symptoms

Because COVID-19 remains a new illness, there is still so much for us to discover. By participating in our study, you will be directly advancing essential medical research. Your support will help clinicians better predict and treat coronavirus related anosmia. Here is how you can do your part:

1. Download the app, and create an account

Click on the download link below and follow the instructions. Afterwards, you'll be directed to a registration page where you can easily create an account. This is a completely free, not-for-profit app.

Download

2. Answer questions about yourself and your symptoms

Answer the following questions to the best of your ability. Your input is extremely valuable, regardless of whether you have been tested for coronavirus or not, if you don't have many symptoms, or even if you have already recovered from a coronavirus infection.

3. Let us know how you are feeling from time to time

Submit a symptom report up to once per day. Let us know how you are feeling so we can better understand your experience over time. Your symptom scores will be automatically analyzed so you may easily keep track them over time.

What are the main features of the app?

Features

Who is the principal investigator?

The
developer

Aykut A. Unsal, D.O., M.S.

Dr. Unsal is Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery at Drexel University College of Medicine located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has a background in Computer Science and is a fellowship-trained specialist in the field of Rhinology, the study of disorders specific to the nose and sinuses. He has published numerous articles in leading peer-reviewed Otolaryngology journals, and presents his research at national conferences annually.

Learn more about Dr. Unsal
Available for iOS and Android devices

Download now

Join the growing number of people tracking their smell symptoms worldwide.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about the study or would like to collaborate, feel free to reach out to us.

Email:
contact@covidsmelltracker.org
Frequently Asked Questions

Common Questions
& Answer

What is the inspiration for this project?

Social distancing has made it difficult to study certain aspects of the novel coronavirus. Because of the contagious nature of the disease, those that are infected are recommended to stay at home and self isolate (even away from healthcare facilities) until their infection resolves. Although this is very important in preventing the spread of the virus, it also naturally creates difficulty in studying the disease process, as most of the infected patients with mild or moderate symptoms end up bypassing the healthcare system altogether. It is no surprise then, that the majority of studies currently performed are on patients that have presented to an emergency room or hospital. These of course tend to be people with the most severe symptoms. However, much less is known about the experience of those who never end up seeing the doctor. It is this group of patients, arguably the largest proportion, that we currently understand the least about.

Digital, telemedicine initiatives have become an critical necessity for patient care during this crisis.Therefore, it only make sense that our research efforts to study this large population also emulate these approaches.

The loss of smell and taste can have a disastrous effect on the quality of life of individuals. It is a pair of senses that is easily taken for granted, until one day it is gone. Everything that we enjoy eating and drinking, those "little" pleasures in life are part of everything that makes us human. As an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, it is heartbreaking to hear the dismay of patients whose lives have changed forever from this issue. Although permanently losing one's smell is not a common occurance, the coronavirus pandemic has created an explosion of anosmia sufferers. We need to learn more about this disease process so that we may better predict and manage these issues going forward.

Now that we know that anosmia is a frequent symptom of infection as reported by major studies, we need to learn more about the severity and prognosis of those suffering. There is still a magnitude of information lacking to allow physicians to appropriately manage COVID-related smell and taste issues. For instance, we still do not understand if there is a particular population at risk, the typical severity of the symptoms, how long they last for, or if there are any reasonable treatments found to be effective. Thus, the ultimate goal of this study is to uncover as many unknowns possible by using an easy-to-use, questionnaire-based mobile application that can be conducted in the comfort of your own home.

This app does not give medical advice, nor is it able to diagnose any medical conditions. It does not have any FDA approval to perform any such functions. It is primarily used to collect data for this study and for you to keep track of your symptoms over time. If you have any questions about your current health, please contact a certified medical professional.

What type of information do you collect?

After signing up, we collect general information about yourself (like your sex, age, height, and weight, etc) as well as some information about any health conditions you may have. We also take a snapshot your location, once, to determine which state or country you reside in. This is important so we can identify which populations may be at higher risk, and to potentially help predict future outbreaks. We also collect information about what COVID symptoms you've had, whether or not you have been tested, and your smell symptoms. All the information you provide is securely saved, and general enough that none of the information provided would be able to identify you are.

We take data privacy very seriously

Every precaution is taken to ensure that your data is stored securely. Your login information is encrypted on our servers. Of course, as with trusting your information with any online service, there are always risks. However, we have made attempts to minimize any identifying information you provide. For instance, we collect your year of birth (not your full date of birth).

This not-for-profit app was created to help contribute to the growing knowledge of the novel coronavirus. Your information will never be used for marketing or commerical purposes.
  • All connections made to our server are encrypted, and performed in a secure fashion.
  • The information you provide cannot be used to determine your identity.
  • This app cannot track your movements or location in real time.
  • Your email & password is primarily used for logging in, and will NEVER be shared with anyone.
  • At any point you would like to opt out of the study, you can deactivate your account under "options".

If at any point you would like to remove yourself from the study, tap on the options button on the homepage, where you will be given the ability to unsubscribe. After doing this, your email and password will be irreversibly, and permanently removed from our servers. This will effectively terminate your account by removing the only identifying information linked to your data. The remaining information previously submitted (which on its own cannot identify you), may still be used for research purposes. Due to the long process of data analysis, writing up the papers, and the peer-review process for submission to journals, we are unable to retroactively remove this information.

How do I create an account?

Sign up is very easy! Once you download the app, traverse a few pages where you will be asked to submit an email and password. As long as your email has not been used before, you should have no difficulty getting started. If you are getting errors during this process, we recommend first ensuring that your internet access is reliable. Afterwards, terminating the app and reloading it can usually solve any other problems you may have.

This app was entirely created by one developer with no budget, and although it was extensively tested prior to release, ther may still be minor bugs. We will do our best to continually address these bugs in future updates. However, we would greatly appreciate you reporting your bugs to us at contact@covidsmelltracker.org. By doing so, we can directly investigate any problems you may be having.

Unfortunately, no. Your email, the only identifying information you provide, is permanently removed from our servers. This is done to protect your data and enforce strict security protocols. Even those that have direct access to the contents of the database would not be able to pick out your data amongst the others once you unsubscribe. Your only option would be to create a new account.

By default, you are restricted to only submitting one report daily. After your initial signup, the earliest you can submit your next symptom report would be the following day. This internal clock resets at midnight, at which you will see a prompt on your home page to submit a new report. We will also send you periodic notifications every few days to remind you in case you forget.

If you initially turn off notifications when you signup, you will not receive notifications from the app. This can only be enabled if you go under your device settings and change allow notifications from the COVID Smell Tracker app. Then once you go back into the app, make sure notifications is check on in under options. Reminders are sent to you about every 3 days from your last report.

If you would like to disable reminders, you can very easily accomplish this by tapping on the options button on your homescreen, and switching off notifications.