Technologies for Fever Screening in the Time of COVID-19: A Review

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing rollout of non-contact fever screening solutions to assist in curbing the spread of disease. This study begins by describing how screening for disease has historically been performed. It proposes four measurement characteristics of an ideal screening solution: non-contact, effective, rapid and low-cost measurements. Next, it reviews the existing literature on fever-screening using non-contact infrared thermometer (NCIT) devices as well as infrared thermography (IRT) devices, as these are two technologies which have experienced increasing use. For this review, 185 research papers were identified, 21 research studies were included after inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied. A total of 35 experiments were identified for analysis and their results tabulated. Of these studies, 66% are IRT and 34% are NCIT, with a median sample size of 430 subjects. 26 experiments involve febrile participants, with a median febrile percentage of 11.22 % of population. The reported sensitivity of febrile detection using NCIT varies from 3.7% to 97% and when using IRT it varies from 15% to 100%. Both indoor and outdoor studies are investigated, as well as those conducted in acute and non-acute settings. The results of this review show a clear lack of consensus on the effectiveness of these systems. Overall, these results indicate that sensitivity and specificity are reduced when using IRT and NCIT technologies compared to other thermometers used in medical practice. Their use should be carefully assessed based on the risks present in each particular measurement scenario.