BOSTON — The Massachusetts State Department of Public Health is exploring the idea of using Bluetooth technology to assist in contact tracing efforts.
State health officials are wondering if existing Apple/Google technology could help reach people who have been exposed to coronavirus.
The state’s contact tracers have been making thousands of calls every week, but there’s a recurring dilemma of people not answering the phone.
Since the start of the pandemic, health officials have been tinkering with options for digital notifications. Now the state is searching for a guinea pig to try it out and report back.
A Request for Responses is seeking submissions for three workstreams: A pilot project, or projects, to validate existing Apple/Google technology, a comparison to third-party applications using the same framework, and a privacy and security review.
A written statement from the COVID-19 Response Command Center specified some potential participants the state is searching for:
“The RFR is seeking communities such as colleges, municipalities or employers that have the capacity to introduce new technology on a pilot basis and provide meaningful results.”
The Director of The Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts told Boston 25 News she commends that state’s cautious approach before committing to using this technology.
“I’m happy to see that administration has taken a deliberate and thoughtful approach to make sure it protects privacy, security and that it actually works,” said Kade Crockford with the ACLU.
Other states and countries have implemented this technology, but Crockford said none have been able to demonstrate a significant public health benefit.
“If these systems are not meaningfully improving our response to the pandemic and they’re not helping contact tracers locate people who may have been exposed, then the government is spending time and money investing in a project that’s not what we need,” explained Crockford.
Since April, using traditional phone calling as the method of contact tracing, local health departments and the Community Tracing Collaborative have identified 233,000 confirmed cases and contacts for outreach, completing outreach with 91 percent of cases and 80 percent of contacts.
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