Becker's Hospital Review

54 CIO / HEALTH IT How healthcare is using tech to accelerate COVID-19 contract tracing By Jackie Drees C ontact tracing, or the process of iden- tifying people who have been exposed to an infectious disease, is being accel- erated by data tracking technologies. Public health experts claim that contact trac- ing, along with widespread testing, is needed for the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic once the economy reopens and patient surges slow, according to STAT. e initiative will help further reduce the spread of COVID-19 by identifying individuals who need to remain in isolation. Hospitals, universities, public health depart- ments and even tech giants Apple and Google have begun to roll out technologies and initia- tives in support of contact tracing. Google and Apple partnered to help health agencies track the spread of COVID-19 using Bluetooth technology. e companies plan to release application programming interfaces that will support interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities that track people who have come in contact with patients who tested positive for the novel coronavirus. At Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, a team of more than 230 IT specialists, clini- cians and engineers built an electronic system that combines medical records, non-clinical data and contact tracing resources to identify employee exposures. e digital toolset, which identifies and no- tifies staff of COVID-19 exposures within an average of two hours of a confirmed case, is key to helping flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases, according to Laura Breeher, MD, med- ical director of Mayo Clinic Occupational Health Services. "Contact tracing helps us quickly identify em- ployees that are exposed," Dr. Breeher said. "We can take those who have had medium or high-risk exposures out of the hospital set- ting, so that if they develop COVID-19 during the following 14 days there is zero risk of them exposing patients or other coworkers." In California, the San Francisco public health department established a task force of re- searchers and medical students from UC San Francisco to trace interactions of people who tested positive for COVID-19 via an online app. e group will send daily text messages to people who have potentially been exposed to check in and monitor whether they have developed symptoms of the disease. UC Irvine researchers created a free smart- phone app, dubbed TrackCOVID, which de- velops an anonymous graph of interactions by pooling user data every time an individual gathers with others or goes to a public place. App users can log their interactions and "checkpoints," or places visited, and the app anonymously links users' interactions as they congregate in the same places over time. Indi- viduals who test positive for COVID-19 can anonymously report it through the app, which will notify users who may be at risk of expo- sure based on the graph of interactions. n Hackers post nearly 25K email addresses, passwords from WHO, NIH & others fighting COVID-19 By Jackie Drees H ackers published almost 25,000 email addresses and passwords allegedly belonging to the Nation- al Institutes of Health, World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation and others working to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Washington Post. The information was posted April 19-20 to several on- line messaging boards and lists, including Twitter, 4chan, Pastebin and Telegram, The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremism and terrorist groups, told the publication. SITE said it found 9,938 alleged emails and passwords of NIH accounts posted on lists online, followed by the CDC with 6,857, the World Bank with 5,120 and WHO with 2,732. A smaller number of accounts were posted for the Gates Foundation and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The cybersecurity group said it was unable to verify whether the email addresses and passwords were authentic but an Australian cybersecurity expert said he confirmed the WHO addresses were real, according to the report. "Neo-Nazis and white supremacists capitalized on the lists and published them aggressively across their venues," SITE Executive Director Rita Katz said. "Using the data, far-right extremists were calling for a harassment campaign while sharing conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pan- demic. The distribution of these alleged email credentials were just another part of a months-long initiative across the far right to weaponize the COVID-19 pandemic." The CDC, WHO and World Bank did not immediately re- spond to the Post's comment requests, but the NIH issued the following statement April 22: "We are always working to ensure optimal cyber safety and security for NIH and take ap- propriate action to address threats or concerns. We do not comment on specific cybersecurity matters, as such informa- tion could be used to undertake malicious activities." n "Contact tracing helps us quickly identify employ- ees that are exposed," Dr. Laura Breeher, Mayo Clinic.

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