ArHIMA | COVID-19 Contact Tracing – How It Was Developed and How It Is Used

Published Date:

October 8, 2020

Overview:

Our speaker will present a timeline of how contact tracing has developed beginning pre-Covid and as the Pandemic evolved. Topics covered will include how the speaker participated in:

1. Contact Tracing Vendor Set-Up
   • Led the integration of our two contact tracing vendors into our system
   • Set-Up protocols for secure modes of data transmission between agencies
   • Worked with vendors to manipulate data to correct format for internal software capabilities
2. Piloted SARA Alert Active monitoring system at ADH for all case contacts
   • Worked with DHHS contractor – Miter – to implement Sara Alert in Arkansas as a pilot site
   • Integrated internal ADH systems to talk with Sara Alert
   • Protocols for Quarantine and Isolation release based on system automation
3. Privacy Concerns between ADH, GDIT, AFMC, UAMS, and Sara Alert
   • Set-up of SFTP services
   • Data manipulation to meet vendor needs and reduce transmission of PHI and PII
4. Data Collection and Reporting
   • Worked to set up data reporting guidelines to ensure contractors were meeting grant deliverables
   • Continuum of care reporting
   •  Integrate vendor datasets into internal systems to track the continuum of services from specimen collection to release

Join us for this interesting conversation!

CEU:

1.0 – Evolving Topics/Other HIIM Relevant Topics

Speaker:

Donald McCormick, MSHI
Public Health Informatics Supervisor
Department of Epidemiology
Arkansas Department of Health

Donald McCormick is the Public Health Informatics Supervisor for the Arkansas Department of Health Epidemiology Department in Little Rock, Arkansas. He began in the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program in 2018 and moved to the Epidemiology Department in 2019 to become the Informatician/Epidemiologist for the Be Well Arkansas Tobacco Cessation Program.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. McCormick has played a pivotal role in the development of visualizations, protocols, and applications for the Arkansas Department of Health. Since March 2020, he has worked to develop the protocol for data exchange between contact tracing vendors and the Department of Health. In April 2020, he took over the implementation of a novel active monitoring software, Sara Alert, which complements the contact tracing process at the Arkansas Department of Health.