Mobile Solutions
HealthSpace tracing platform for COVID-19 deployed
April 8, 2020
VANCOUVER – HealthSpace Data Systems Ltd. has begun deploying its contact tracing platform, for COVID-19, with Okanogan County Public Health in Washington and Vancouver Island Health Authority.
After its initial outreach to existing customers regarding COVID-19, the Company learned of the growing need to scale contact tracing efforts for public health departments.
Contact tracing is a process employed by epidemiologists world-wide that enables them to retrace the steps of a person testing positive for COVID-19 and track anyone who may have had direct contact with them. These agencies then embark on a painstaking process of interviewing each of the potential contacts, calling them daily for a set period of time to monitor if they exhibit any symptoms.
HealthSpace has since extended its HSCloud Suite and My Health Department products to serve as a fully automated contact tracing platform. This new platform replaces the manual process of calling each individual contact with an automated system that sends out a unique and secure link via text message and email with a daily questionnaire for each of the contacts being traced. The questionnaire allows the contact to enter their symptoms, temperature and a variety of other information as directed by each agency.
The platform also allows those filling out the questionnaire to list places they have recently been – such as a supermarket – and people they have been in direct contact with, enrolling these new contacts in the daily contact tracing questionnaire. This multiplies the reach and helps control community spread more effectively.
The information is securely stored inside of HealthSpace’s secure HSCloud Suite platform for detailed reporting and analysis, and helps these agencies make informed decisions in real-time.
This platform is being delivered at a time when unprecedented pressure and attention has been placed on public health agencies. This growing pressure and strain has also brought about the demand for increased funding.
In the $2 trillion economic stimulus package recently signed into law in the US, $500m has been specifically earmarked for the CDC with the express purpose of providing public health surveillance and data collection system (https://www.wpxi.com/news/washington-news-bureau/cdc-granted-500-million-surveillance-data-collection-system-fight-coronavirus/BB7YNCIL2FGHZOWL4YCIUFFV4E/).
HealthSpace CEO, Silas Garrison (pictured) commented “In a time when public health agencies and governments across the globe are scrambling, looking for help, I am humbled that our platform has risen to the occasion. Our team has been working tirelessly since we discovered the need for digital contact tracing and were able to stand up, in record time, a platform that truly scales contact tracing to meet the magnitude of this global crisis.”
About HealthSpace Data Systems Ltd.
HealthSpace is a government Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company focused on providing efficiencies to state and local government agencies through its powerful enterprise cloud and mobile platform. Over the last decade, HealthSpace has successfully developed both cloud and mobile applications currently serving over 500 state and local government organizations across North America.