COVID-19 Technology Resources For Cities & States

HELPING MAYORS and GOVERNORS RESPOND TO and RECOVER FROM COVID-19
(SUMMER 2020)

Tech4America bridges Silicon Valley with public leaders to tackle big public challenges. Because of our partnerships with mayors and governors across the nation, we can disseminate tech ideas for responding to and recovering from Covid-19 widely and quickly.

This page was created in the Spring and Summer of 2020.

T4A is only a tech resource, not a government agency. For that, start with < coronavirus.gov >.

Jump to a section:

Medical Technologies for Telehealth, Testing, Contact Tracing, and More

Tech for Communicating to the Public & Showing Covid-19 Spread

Tech for Providing Public Services & Public Benefits

Tech for Remote Learning / Home Education

Got A Tech Idea to Help Cities & States?

Tech to Help Provide Public Services & Benefits

Tech to Better Provide Government Services & Benefits

1. Finding Tech Talent     2. Handling Incoming Public Inquiries   3. Working Remotely

            4. Online Services for Citizens, Small Businesses, & Non-Profits

Finding Tech Talent to Help City & State Leaders

  • Matching Tech Volunteers for Covid-19 Projects - "Help with Covid" is matching volunteers to pandemic-related projects, especially those using technology tools. They're working on many prevention, medical, and community projects. (posted April 20)
    More information:      https://helpwithcovid.com
    Contact:                     helpwithcovid@gmail.com

  • Finding People to Do Tracing & Other Public Outreach (The Social Practice) - In many states and counties, contract tracing and other work will require paid staff or highly trained volunteers to conduct hundreds of thousands of conversations via phone and text messaging with community members who have been exposed to COVID-19. The Social Practice uses widely available consumer technology to build and manage remote staff or volunteer teams capable of calling and texting millions of people at a higher volume, higher quality and lower cost than traditional vendor-based call centers and constituent contact operations. (posted April 24)
    More information:            https://thesocialpractice.org/
    Contact:                          Becky Bond, co-founder becky@thesocialpractice.co / 415.595.0040

Manage Public Inquiries & Emergency Response  

  • Prioritize and Mobilize Resources (Salesforce) -Speed up local stabilization and disaster relief efforts with streamlined program management and incident resolution for residents, communities, and government agencies. With the Emergency Response Management for Public Sector solution, you can: Accelerate responsiveness with a single view of all requests and approvals; Empower and connect with emergency response field workers using intuitive mobile apps; and Attain mission readiness in a matter of days with compliant service deployment. (posted July 9)
    More information:       https://www.salesforce.com/products/emergency-response/overview/?d=cta-body-promo-94

  • Managing Incoming Public Inquiries and Delivering Services - Hello Alice currently has solutions to: (1) communicate to a network of more than 4,000 small businesses; (2) tech to better manage incoming inquiries in a very personalized way; (3) distributing millions of dollars to small businesses using smart filtering tools, automated scorecards, and validation tools. They currently run grants programs for KKR, eBay, Mastercard, Verizon, Amazon and more as the back end to their programs. (posted June 18)
    More information:               helloaclice.com
    Contact:                             carolyn@helloalice.com

  • Managing Incoming FAQs from Citizens (Community Connect Labs) - COVID-19 Assistance Chatbot Answer frequently asked questions about resources for assistance with unemployment, childcare, housing, and other existing resources. -- Reduce inbound questions and hold-times for phone lines -- Provide answers to questions quickly, conveniently and confidentially -- Language Access: English, Spanish and other languages upon request -- Robust Reporting: Monitor top questions and number of questions answered (posted May 11)
    More information:       https://www.communityconnectlabs.com/covid-19-chatbot-for-covid-19-referral
    https://www.communityconnectlabs.com/covid-19-communications-solutions-for-government
    Contact:                      perla@communityconnectlabs.com

 

Government Teams Working Remotely 

  • Digital Permitting, Licensing, and Remote Work Tools for Public Employees - CityGrows, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, is helping large and small governments transition quickly to remote work and digital services. No up-front cost and with very little staff time (and no IT / coding/ network support). Its low-cost, SaaS platform allows any size of government to quickly stand up digital permitting, licensing, and internal workflows, allowing government employees to work from home and continue to provide key operations. They've helped governments stand up COVID-19 relief application and restaurant reopening certification workflows in as little as a day, and all their COVID-related workflows are free for local governments to use. They encourage governments to copy and repurpose each other's work, reducing setup time. (posted June 18)
    More information:           workflow library - https://community.citygro.ws/workflows
    Contact:                         catherine@citygro.ws

 

  • Improving the Work of Government Teams Working Remotely - CivicActions focuses on effective distributed teams in government by helping agencies work effectively during the sudden move from office to telework. There are a range of training and consulting offerings, including: training on how to telework efficiently and securely use commercial software/hardware; training for specific leadership issues around distributed team cohesion, trust and isolation; training on how to setup and effectively run large secure meetings online; training on how to recruit while physically distributed; executive strategy briefings and consulting help writing practical telework policies that work at scale. From mid-March to the end of April, CivicActions ran free daily webinars and training workshops for federal, state and local agencies. (posted June 18)
    More information:        https://civicactions.com
    Contact:                       john.oduinn@civicactions.com

 

  • Coordinating Work with Remote Teams - Friyay.io has built a free platform for coordinating remote teams, that can be used for project management and info-sharing. They can set up spaces and help manage info for any cities/states/other gov't entities that would like to put it to use. (posted May 11)
    More information:              friyay.io
    Contact:                            angela@friyay.io

Making Sense of a Future of Working Remotely

Link      March 24, 2020

n this podcast, podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Matt Mullenweg about the evolution of distributed work. They discuss the benefits of working from home, the new norms of knowledge work, relevant tools and security concerns, the challenges for managers, the importance of written communication, the necessity of innovating in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, delivery networks as critical infrastructure, economic recovery, and other topics. Matt Mullenweg is a founding developer of WordPress, the Open Source software used by 36% of the web.

Online Services to Help Citizens, Small Businesses, and Non-Profits

  • Connecting Local Aid Groups & Engabling Neighbor-to-Neighbor Help - Golden's Mutual Aid platform offers free-forever live tools for organizing and tracking mutual aid groups activities, publishing branded live feeds of communities' needs and offers, and for enabling individuals to participate in neighbor-to-neighbor help. The platform is currently being used by two state governments, numerous local mutual aid groups, and is being piloted by two national networks with memberships of 19mm and 50mm members respectively. The platform is supported by Golden, which is the most popular app for volunteering and the most globally-awarded software for managing volunteer programs in every sector.
    More information:       https://www.goldenvolunteer.com
                                       Medium post on the origins of the platform
                                       TV news story
    Contact:                     sam@goldenvolunteer.com

 

  • Seamless Docs is offering multiple web based tools for government agencies to provide information and services to constituents remotely as well as facilitating access to necessary forms and functions for government employees working in remote settings. Templates include: Coronavirus government agency web portals and a library of critical forms constituents need without having to appear in person at government offices. (posted April 15)
    More information:       https://www.seamlessdocs.com/coronavirus-portal
    Contact:                     see website
  • Providing Internet Connections to Homes Without It. - Starting in 2012, Education Superhighway has upgraded internet access    in schools nationwide so that now more than 99% of them have high-speed broadband. With the pandemic, they have turned to connecting the 9 million students to the internet at home via Digital Bridge K-12. This "home connectivity gap" was already impacting underserved students before Covid-19 shut down 125,000 schools. There has never been a more critical time to take action to ensure all students have equitable access to the Internet at home. "We can't quarantine kids' minds while we quarantine them at home," argues Education Superhighway Founder Evan Marwell. (posted May 28)
    More information:     https://digitalbridgek12.org
                                     Blog: From Wiring Schools to Wiring Homes
    Contact:                   info@educationsuperhighway.org

 

  • Broadband Internet for Emergency Services, Pop-Up Services, and Schools - Cradlepoint, Inc. provides cloud-delivered 4G LTE network solutions for business, service providers, and government organizations. They can help IT teams and those responsible for standing up or expanding wireless networks during the pandemic: Establish a network in minutes at temporary or pop-up locations, including virus screening tents and mobile command centers; provide Internet and VPN connectivity to at-home workers and students with high-bandwidth needs; installing connectivity in school buses to be parked in the community; public safety. Founded in 2006, they have more than 18,000 customers worldwide in retail, financial services, healthcare, transportation, public sector, and other industries. (posted May 5)
    More information:     https://cradlepoint.com/covid19-response
    Contact:                    1-855-813-3385 or https://cradlepoint.com/company/contact_us

https://cradlepoint.com/covid19-response

  • Childcare Matching for Essential Workers - Weekdays matches essential workers with local, vetted childcare professionals for Home Pods (in-home childcare programs and home school programs of three children or less). Through tech and hands on support, we can match thousands of highly qualified childcare providers and teachers (many currently out of work) with parents needing childcare who are essential workers. (posted April 22)
    More information:        https://joinweekdays.com
    Contact:                       https://joinweekdays.com/signup OR shaunacausey-at-gmail-dot-com

 

FOOD INSECURITY

  • Find Food Assistance, Help Paying Bills, and Other Programs - Thousands of organizations, including non-profits and neighborhood groups, are helping people affected by COVID-19 all across the country. FindHelp, a project of public benefit corporation AuntBertha, has pulled these programs into one location. Just enter your zip code to find local programs to help you get food if you can’t afford it, bill payment assistance and other programs that serve your area.  (posted April 30)
    More information:     https://findhelp.org/
    Contact:                    Demo for Public Leaders: https://company.auntbertha.com/for-customers/sales-demo/
    Citizens:                    enter zip code on website

TELEHEALTH / MEDICAL SERVICES OVER THE INTERNET

  • National Consortium of Telehealth Resources - Telehealth can help address COVID-19 and other pandemic situations by limiting exposure to infection for vulnerable populations and health care workers. Telehealth can also expand the reach of resources to communities that have limited access to needed services. This allows patients to receive health services away from settings where potential for contracting infectious diseases are high, such as hospitals, health clinic waiting rooms, private practices, etc. The Telehealth Resource Centers (TRCs) have compiled and developed resources specific to their regions. (posted May 11)
    More information:          https://www.telehealthresourcecenter.org/covid-19-resources/
    Contact:                        https://www.telehealthresourcecenter.org/contact/

 

  • Digital Health  & Telemedicine Directory - The directory tracks telemedicine and digital health solutions including remote monitoring services, mental health services, and medical devices designed for health care at a distance. (posted April 13)
    More information:           https://www.cta.tech/Landing-Pages/COVID-19-Digital-Health-Resources
    Contact:                          CTA@CTA.tech / 703-907-7600

 

 

 

  • Mental Health (Wisdom Labs) - This San Francisco based company is offering a completely free set of resources to care for the mental, emotional, and social wellbeing of state and city employees. Their Wise@Work App provides short, science-based lessons and practices tailored to changing moods and specific work situations. The app works with their Wise@Work Communities, a peer-led SaaS product designed to build communities of learning and practice that has scaled globally within companies such as Merck, Kauffman Foundation, Salesforce, and LinkedIn. Wise@Work has specific lessons that are highly relevant during this time of increased stress, uncertainty, and social isolation. Implementing this will require no personnel and will help with the overwhelm.
    More information:       https://wisdomlabs.com/coronavirus-mental-emotional-wellness-response-kit/

 

  • The Headspace meditation app has a library of guided meditations. (posted May 20)

 

  • Ten Percent Happier app offers guided meditations, coronavirus-focused sessions (free of charge) and a daily virus-focused livestream and Q&A. (posted May 20)

 

  • The Virus Anxiety website has daily mantras, write-in mental health questions and calming online distractions. (posted May 20)

LEGAL, BUSINESS, and EMPLOYMENT

  • Getting Tax Refunds (incl. EITCs) Faster - GetYourRefund.org is a project of Code for America and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) to help ensure eligible taxpayers claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which can be over $3,000 per family. They also help prepare taxes and save people up to $300 by filing for free. (posted April 20)
    More information:      GetYourRefund.org
    Contact:                    hello@getyourrefund.org

 

  • Site Selection for Emergency Activities - CityBldr, Inc. provides site selection, AI, and simulation technology that can aid both emergency response and planning. It optimizes where to put mobile field hospitals, temporary warehousing, and other structures on the landscape and can reveal ownership and other constraints. They are former city planners, environmental scientists, AI / data scientists, and real estate professionals. (posted April 22)
    More information:         citybldr.com
    Contact:                        hello@citybldr.com / 877-822-CITY

Also...

  • Covid-19 is Forcing Experiments in Communication, Work eCommerce, Health Care, and Education That Have Implications Far Past the Taming of Covid-19. (Excerpts from an April 13 Benedict Evans essay.)

    We're currently going through a vast, forced public experiment to find out which bits of human psychology will align with which kinds of technology tools and how much ecommerce will change. Today, over 4bn people have a smartphone - 75% of the earth's adult population.  Over 80% of American teenagers have an iPhone. We're all online now.    Since the Covid-19 lockdowns began, for example, Zoom has gone from 10m to 200m daily users. Another example of the forced experiments: people have to at least try experiences such as grocery delivery that they would often have dismissed before - that's a 'Green Eggs and Ham' moment.

    Further, some physical retail just won't be there anymore when we go back outside, and some of the demand that has disappeared for the moment won't come back either.

    Finally, you can see that market reset in another way in two big industries that people have spent decades dreaming of moving to digital and to remote - health and education.  All this is accelerated by tens of thousands of software engineers who are cooped up at home getting frustrated with their current tech tools and wondering if they can spot some pain point, or mechanic, or small difference to the flow, and solve some opportunity that no-one ever quite realised was there. A lot of companies will be born in nine months.

    There is a note of caution, however, regarding equity and access. Though the vast majority of us are now online, there are still tens of millions of people in the developed world who are not, mostly (they say) because they don't see the point or perhaps it's because they don't understand the technology because they are older, less capable, or reside on the wrong side of the digital divide.

    More information:       https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2020/4/13/covid-and-forced-experiments
    Contact:                     https://www.ben-evans.com/contact

 

Communicating to the Public & Tracking Covid-19's Spread

Communicating to the Public & Tracking Covid-19's Spread

                  1. Communication Tools                     2. Maps of Covid-19's Spread

Click Here for 16 Interactive Maps, Charts, and Graphs All in One Place (T4A's Medium page)

Communicating with the Public

 

  • Managing Incoming Public Inquiries and Delivering Services - Hello Alice currently has solutions to: (1) communicate to a network of more than 4,000 small businesses; (2) tech to better manage incoming inquiries in a very personalized way; (3) distributing millions of dollars to small businesses using smart filtering tools, automated scorecards, and validation tools. They currently run grants programs for KKR, eBay, Mastercard, Verizon, Amazon and more as the back end to their programs. (posted June 18)
    More information:              helloaclice.com
    Contact:                             carolyn@helloalice.com

 

  • Corona Virus Data Resource Hub provides tools for creating visualizations of recent epidemiological data. The data is compiled by John Hopkins University. Organizations can receive a free "Jumpstart Kit" with the complete data set as well as a dashboard template to create specialized visualizations pertinent to the population they are serving. Many organizations are submitting their visualizations back to the Hub for other organizations to reference and share, increasing the library of data visualizations available to the public at large.
    More information:         https://www.tableau.com/learn/series/getting-started-covid-19-data-hub
    Contact:                        https://www.tableau.com/
  • Civic Plus Crisis Communication Portal provides tools for uninterrupted access to governing bodies & public meetings through a suite of tools.. Features include CivicClerk agenda and meeting management software; CP Media, a live and recorded video solution; and CivicReady, which provides text, email, phone call, and mobile app messaging functionality in over 60 languages and integrates with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). (posted April 13)
    More information:      Civic Plus Portal
    Contact:                     www.civicplus.com/contact-us
  • Online Communications & Work - OpenGov provides government-focused tools for crisis communications, virtual town halls, and working online. Cloud software more mission-critical work is key for governments to keep City Hall running when the physical City Hall must be closed. It enables workers to keep working regardless of where they are, which isn't possible with a lot of on-premise and legacy technology that. they are typically saddled with. (posted April 13)
    More information:        https://opengov.com/covid-19/
    Contact:                       https://opengov.com/contact-us/
                                         lhartman@opengov.com
  • Marketplace.city has compiled and validated a number of innovative technology providers offering Covid-19 digital readiness and response kits to help government agencies provide uninterrupted services, crisis communication tools, remote meeting and work solutions, mapping and knowledge sharing all in support of direct communication with constituents. (posted April 20)
    More information:       https://marketplace.city/cities/covid-19
    Contact:                      hello@marketplace.city

  • Tracking Local Public Opinion Daily - Elucd.com has developed a tool for state and local leaders to track public sentiment in their area on a daily basis--so they can understand how worried people are, how prepared they feel, where they're getting trusted info, etc. They release free national data at covidattitudes.com, and are working with leaders in NYC, Seattle, DC, and many other cities to give them local data, and have capacity to work with many more (updated June 18)
    More information:        https://elucd.com
                                        covidattitudes.com
    Contact:                       sujeet@elucd.com

  • Zoom Training Resources
    More information:        https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/covid19.html?utm_source=website&utm_medium=postattendee&utm_campaign=COVID19FY21&zcid=3709

  • Tools Made Popular by Covid-19 for Working and Connecting With Each Other (updated May 5)
    • TikTok has become popular for connecting to younger Americans on Covid-19 issues. Why? Because even if you' ve never heard of it, that's where younger people are. The short-video platform is also providing financial and technical resources.
      More information:       https://www.tiktok.com/safety/resources/covid-19?lang=en
    • Around overlays small circular video windows atop your screen so you can instantly communicate with colleagues while most of your desktop stays focused on your actual work. It's born out of frustration with remote work collaboration. The founders discovered that Zoom was "built around decades-old assumptions of what a video call should be. A Zoom video call is basically a telephone connected to a video camera."
      More information:       https://www.around.co/
    • Talkshow offers instant broadcasting radio-style call-in shows.
      More information:       https://www.jointalkshow.com/
    • Discord lets communities spontaneously connect through persistent video, voice, and chat rooms. It's seen a 50% increase in US daily voice users with spikes in shelter-in-place early adopter states like California, New York, New Jersey, and Washington.
      More information:      https://discordapp.com/
    • Bunch, is climbing the charts and going mainstream with its user base shifting to become majority female as they talk for 1.5 million minutes per day. Both Discord and Bunch make it easy to join up with pals and pick a game to play together.
      More information:     https://bunch.live/
  • Broadband Internet for Emergency Services, Pop-Up Services, and Schools - Cradlepoint, Inc. provides cloud-delivered 4G LTE network solutions for business, service providers, and government organizations. They can help IT teams and those responsible for standing up or expanding wireless networks during the pandemic: Establish a network in minutes at temporary or pop-up locations, including virus screening tents and mobile command centers; provide Internet and VPN connectivity to at-home workers and students with high-bandwidth needs; installing connectivity in school buses to be parked in the community; public safety. Founded in 2006, they have more than 18,000 customers worldwide in retail, financial services, healthcare, transportation, public sector, and other industries. (posted May 5)
    More information:     https://cradlepoint.com/covid19-response
    Contact:                    1-855-813-3385 or https://cradlepoint.com/company/contact_us

https://cradlepoint.com/covid19-response

  • Mapping and Tracking Covid-19's Spread

--> See T4A's Medium Article on All-In-One-Place Maps, Charts, and Graphs (published June 2020)

Wrold Map of Covid-19 Hotspots

  • Testing: Identified Cases, Number of Tests, Where Tests Have Occurred - The Covid Data Tracking Project publishes complete testing data. It was launched out of The Atlantic to fill a major gap in publicly available COVID-19 testing data. Johns Hopkins University maintains a comprehensive case count, but no governmental or institutional source is publishing complete testing data—including not just identified cases, but how many people have been tested, and where. Without this data, we can't make informed decisions or accurately communicate risks. (posted April 13)
    More information:      https://covidtracking.com
                                      https://covidtracking.com/data
    Contact:                    see website

chart

 

  • Tracking States as They Reopen (Symptoms, Hospitals, Testing): Using the gating criteria provided by the White House, Covid Exit Strategy tracked each state's progress towards its reduction in symptoms and cases, health system readiness, and increased testing. Symptoms: How is the disease spreading? Hospitals: Can the hospitals handle the load? Testing: Is it robust enough? Using sources like the COVID Tracking Project and the CDC they measure how a state is controlling the epidemic. They are a group of public health and crisis experts. With former experience working at the White House, Department of Health and Human Services, and on the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. They are a non-partisan group, having worked across multiple administrations. (posted June 18)
    More information:       https://www.covidexitstrategy.org
    Contact:                      feedback@covidexitstrategy.org 

  • Local Hospital Capacity, # of Contacts Traced, Projected Spread (By State, City County, Zip Code): Stanford and Goergetown Universities teamed up with former Google and Dropbox techies to create easy-to-understand Covid-19 tracking site. Covid Act Now is a multidisciplinary team of technologists, epidemiologists, health experts, and public policy leaders working to provide disease intelligence and data analysis on COVID in the U.S. (posted June 9)
    More information:       https://covidactnow.org
    Contact:                     gov@covidactnow.org (state & local governments)
                                       info@covidactnow.org (general inquiries)

  • How Fast is It Spreading? - Rt.live is an up-to-date tracker of how fast COVID-19 is spreading in each state and by region and by those with no shelter-in-place policies. It was launched the week of April 13th by Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. "Rt" measures the average number of people who become infected by an infectious person. "As states decide whether and how to open back up, they'll have to manage their infection rate carefully, and we hope dashboards like rt.live will be helpful in doing so," Krieger says. By better illustrating how even small differences in shelter-in-place policy and compliance can exponentially change the severity of the impact of the virus, it could help convince people to stay inside. This kind of tool could also be helpful for determining where it'd be safe to reactivate some businesses, and quickly catch if virality is spiking and strict social distancing needs to be reinstated. (posted April 22)
    More information:         https://rt.live
    Contact:                        hello@rt.live

A Simple Score Tells How Fast the Virus is Spreading

San Francisco Chronicle      May 15, 2020

A single number that defines the state of the coronavirus outbreak is gaining new status: the R0. That’s the reproduction value, pronounced R-naught. It’s an epidemiological number that, in simplest terms, represents how many people an infected individual will transmit the virus to.

An R0 of 2 means that every infected person will infect two others, and those two people will each infect two more, and so on. An R0 of 1 means every person will infect one other, and a disease outbreak will neither grow nor decline. To slow down spread, the R0 needs to drop below 1 ...

“We crank these disease models out all the time. The R0 is just one estimate that emerges as an indication of how different mitigations might be working,” said Shannon Bennett, chief of science at the California Academy of Sciences.

  • Have States Flattened the Curve?
    This Johns Hopkins University graph shows whether cases of COVID-19 are increasing, decreasing, or remaining constant within each state. It is a 3-day moving average.

Where Americans areStaying at Home the Most

Washington Post   May 6, 2020

U.S. residents are beginning to inch out of their homes, according to new cellphone data. But even as states begin to “open up,” more Americans appear to be staying put than sprinting out the door. The peak period of our collective, coronavirus-induced lockdown was the seven-day period ending April 7 when 93% of people kept close to home. State orders are not necessarily dictating everyone's behavior. Regardless, people are not flocking back to their workplaces. Data for this story was provided by SafeGraph, a company that aggregates location data from tens of millions of devices and compares it with building footprints.

 

  •  Racial & Ethnic Disparities - The COVID Racial Data Trackeris a collaboration between the COVID Tracking Project and the Antiracist Research & Policy Center. This is the most complete race and ethnicity data on COVID-19 in the US. (posted June 30)
    More information:       https://covidtracking.com/race

 

  • Worldwide Death Rates - This Johns Hopkins University chart shows the # of deaths either per 100 confirmed cases or per 100,000 population. The USA has the 9th highest death rate in the world under the population measure (6/26/20).
    More information:   https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

  • Worldwide Speed of Infection - This Johns Hopkins University chart shows each country’s growth curve starting on the day that each nation confirmed its 50th case. Cases and deaths are included.
    More information:     https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/cumulative-cases

  • Finding People to Do Tracing & Other Public Outreach (The Social Practice) - In many states and counties, contract tracing and other work will require paid staff or highly trained volunteers to conduct hundreds of thousands of conversations via phone and text messaging with community members who have been exposed to COVID-19. The Social Practice uses widely available consumer technology to build and manage remote staff or volunteer teams capable of calling and texting millions of people at a higher volume, higher quality and lower cost than traditional vendor-based call centers and constituent contact operations. (posted April 24)
    More information:            https://thesocialpractice.org/
    Contact:                          Becky Bond, co-founder becky@thesocialpractice.co / 415.595.0040

Medical Technologies for Telehealth, Testing, Contact Tracing, and More

Medical Tech for Public Leaders

1. Telehealth   2. Survivors / Blood Plasma Collection   3. Testing   4. Monitoring Patients

                                  5. Contact Tracing    6. Finding PPE    7. Data Sources

Beware of Fraudulent Covid-19 Products 
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/health-fraud-scams/fraudulent-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-products
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/beware-fraudulent-coronavirus-tests-vaccines-and-treatments

TELEHEALTH / MEDICAL SERVICES OVER THE INTERNET

  • National Consortium of Telehealth Resources - Telehealth can help address COVID-19 and other pandemic situations by limiting exposure to infection for vulnerable populations and health care workers. Telehealth can also expand the reach of resources to communities that have limited access to needed services. This allows patients to receive health services away from settings where potential for contracting infectious diseases are high, such as hospitals, health clinic waiting rooms, private practices, etc. The Telehealth Resource Centers (TRCs) have compiled and developed resources specific to their regions. (posted May 11)
    More information:          https://www.telehealthresourcecenter.org/covid-19-resources/
    Contact:                        https://www.telehealthresourcecenter.org/contact/

 

  • Digital Health  & Telemedicine Directory - The directory tracks telemedicine and digital health solutions including remote monitoring services, mental health services, and medical devices designed for health care at a distance. (posted April 13)
    More information:           https://www.cta.tech/Landing-Pages/COVID-19-Digital-Health-Resources
    Contact:                          CTA@CTA.tech / 703-907-7600

 

How to Use Telemedicine While Sheltering in Place

San Francisco Chronicle   March 31, 2020

Q: How and when should I use telemedicine?

A: Doctors say that telehealth should be the default right now, but it’s not a mandate. Patients can visit a doctor or hospital if necessary.

Q: How much does it cost and what does insurance cover?

A: Costs differ depending on your provider and insurance. Some insurance companies are easing up on telehealth fees.

Q: Who is doing telemedicine?

A: It’s safe to assume that every hospital and health care provider is offering telehealth — most in a variety of methods, including chatting, phone, and video calls.

 

BLOOD PLASMA DONORS / COVID-19 SURVIVORS

 

  • Seeking Plasma Donors: Covid-19 Expanded Access Program (Mayo Clinic) - Responding to the unprecedented challenge of fighting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the U.S. Government is supporting a national Expanded Access Program to collect and provide convalescent plasma to patients in need across the country. Plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients contains antibodies that may help fight the disease. Working collaboratively with industry, academic, and government partners, Mayo Clinic will serve as the lead institution for the program. (posted May 11)
    More information:          https://www.uscovidplasma.org
    Contact:                        uscovidplasma@mayo.edu

TESTING FOR VIRUS & ANTIBODIES

  • Testing Site Locator (Castlight) - Castlight Health, the health navigation company, has developed the most comprehensive testing site finder in the US. It covers all 50 states, and is constantly being updated. The company is offering it to organizations to embed on their sites for their users. The directory is powering the testing site finders of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Ford Motor Company, and is integrated into Google search and maps results. (posted April 29)
    More information:           https://www.castlighthealth.com/
    Contact:                         ken@crosscutstrategies.com

TRACKING & MONITORING PATIENTS

CONTACT TRACING

A Scramble for Coronavirus Apps That Do No Harm

New York Times        March & June 2020

Dozens of tracking apps for smartphones are being used or developed to help contain the coronavirus pandemic. But there are worries about privacy and hastily written software. At their core, the apps are intended to gather information about the movements of people who have tested positive for the virus, alert others who might have crossed their paths, and in some cases make sure infected people stay quarantined. They use smartphone technologies, such as GPS and Bluetooth, to collect and share the data, which make them agile and easy to use but also provide an enticing target for hackers or government surveillance.

 

  • Contact Tracing Apps and Maps Using Mobile Phones -- These phone apps alert users when they have been around someone who has a confirmed case of COVID-19. Countries are rushing to develop apps to give a detailed picture of the risk of catching the coronavirus, as the chain of infection is proving hard to break because it can be spread by those showing no symptoms. Your smartphone would register when you’ve come into close contact with other people. If one of those people later reports Covid-19 symptoms to a public health authority, your phone would receive an alert about the diagnosis. It works a bit like exchanging contact information with everyone you meet. (posted April 28)

    • MIT's Contact Tracing Project (June 18) - PACT’s mission is to enhance contact tracing in pandemic response by designing exposure detection functions in personal digital communication devices that have maximal public health utility while preserving privacy. The PACT effort began in mid-March 2020.
      More information: https://pact.mit.edu
    • Apple & Google Partnership to Trace Contacts of Those with Covid-19 (announced early April, available mid-May) - Apple & Google are joining forces to build an opt-in contact-tracing tool using Bluetooth technology that could help public health officials track the spread of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Their approach has created conversations on privacy and government surveillance.
      More information:       https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/10/21216675/apple-google-covid-coronavirus-contact-tracing-app
    • British National Health Service Moves Toward "Centralized" App (April 27) - The UK has opted for a "centralised model" to achieve alert people using their cell phones that they might be infects. This means that the matching process, which works out which phones to send alerts to - happens on a computer server. This contrasts with Apple and Google's "decentralised" approach - where the matches take place on users' handsets.
      More information:     https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52441428
  • Salesforce Contact Tracing Resources (announced early May) - Capture the most relevant information, investigate possible points of infection transmission, and take immediate action to minimize spread. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff credited Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo for inspiring the company to develop a newly launched batch of tools to help businesses reopen their workplaces during the global health crisis.
    More information:   https://www.salesforce.com/products/contact-tracing/overview/?d=cta-body-promo-112
    In the News:           CNBC Story (May 4, 2020)
  • Contact Tracing (Community Connect Labs)  - Enables staff and volunteers to more efficiently collect data and to enable patients to self-report data via secure, HIPAA compliant channels. -- Reduce man-hours needed by automated text messaging for interview scheduling, follow-ups for data collection, assistance for food and other services - check-ins and reminders to patients -- Secure HIPAA compliant CRM database - used by over 30,000 organizations - designed for patient data tracking -- Secure web form for patients to provide on-going self reporting -- Simple and quick volunteer/staff training --- Securely and easily accessible for volunteers and staff working from home. --- Intuitive, easy to learn user-interface for volunteers and staff. --- Easily add new known contacts of patients, their symptoms, known contacts, locations and more. Keep track of all new known contacts, relationships and locations. -- Robust reporting, live, built-in dashboard -- Easily customizable for changes in requirements (posted May 11)
    More information:     https://www.communityconnectlabs.com/covid-19-communications-solutions-for-government
                                     https://www.communityconnectlabs.com/  
    Contact:                    perla@communityconnectlabs.com

 

Where Americans are Staying at Home the Most

Washington Post   May 6, 2020

U.S. residents are beginning to inch out of their homes, according to new cellphone data. But even as states begin to “open up,” more Americans appear to be staying put than sprinting out the door. The peak period of our collective, coronavirus-induced lockdown was the seven-day period ending April 7 when 93% of people kept close to home. State orders are not necessarily dictating everyone's behavior. Regardless, people are not flocking back to their workplaces. Data for this story was provided by SafeGraph, a company that aggregates location data from tens of millions of devices and compares it with building footprints.

 

  • Covid19 Research Using Mobile Phones (Govt/University Collaborations)
      • Eureka: University of California - San Francisco - Eureka is a non-profit resource built by researchers at the UCSF with support from the National Institutes of Health. By providing researchers with tools to mobilize studies and engage participants in ground-breaking discoveries, Eureka pushes the boundaries of traditional research. (posted April 13)
        Contact:                 http://info.eurekaplatform.org/contact

     

      • Hippocratic Project: University of Washington - UW Medicine is recruiting people nationwide to test out a smartphone app that's intended to predict outbreaks of infections such as cold, flu, or other virus outbreaks. The app is a project funded by the Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which makes investments in technologies that support national security. (posted April 13)
        More information:   https://newsroom.uw.edu/news/uw-medicine-recruiting-app-predict-next-outbreak

FINDING PPE

  • Finding PPE
    • Univ. of Pittsburgh - Our face shield was designed to meet the growing need for locally manufactured PPE in the current pandemic situation.
      More information: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kq4yI5qcNT4mQvI8Yl7W875CQ7Ixjv6Zy9HegUxD2xI/edit
    • University of Wisconsin - This Is a site created to connect organizations in need of face shields with those making them.
      More information: https://making.engr.wisc.edu/shield/
    • HelpfulEngineering.org - We are an open community of volunteers without a commercial purpose. Applying unused engineering and manufacturing resources, we can help the world cope with the threat of COVID-19.
    • Omie, Inc. - This group has, among other things:
      Top tier, FDA-approved suppliers in China
      Two well-established teams on the ground in China
      Full financing of all purchase orders and/or deposits into escrow
      Top tier law firm that deals with FDA and US Customs
      One of the world's largest freight forwarding companies handling door-to-door logistics for our buyers
      Letters of guarantees from suppliers
      More information:     https://www.omiear.com
      Contact:                    oitum@omiear.com / (202) 615-5316
    • Open Innovation Coalition - The San Francisco based Coalition, launched April 1, is an initiative to collect and open source manufacturing know-how so retailers can produce personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical workers. Participating companies... contribute to a collection of raw materials that can be used to make PPE; exchange patterns and templates to produce in-demand medical gear; pool manufacturing capabilities to speed up PPE production; distribute completed PPE to hospitals and frontline workers in need
      More information:    https://rothys.com/blog/sustainability/articles/how-were-supporting-our-community
      Contact:                   openinnovation@rothys.com

COLLECTING, ANALYZING, and ACCESSING COVID-19 DATA

  • Aggregating Data Sources - Transpara is collecting and sanitizing public data sources, finding errors in them, and have published a public dashboard that is updated as new data arrives. Beyond just cases and deaths by geography, they look at growth rates, per capita metrics, population density, etc. and focus on more obvious ways to view the data. This is a free service. (posted April 22)
    More information:         https://live.transpara.com/Covid19
    Contact:                       robert.hylton@transpara.com

  • Aggregated Official Data from States - The Coronavirus Public Health Initiative site provides a record of official data from US government websites for the 50 states and DC. All data provided here are direct crawls of state government websites. These are the officially reported numbers. Unlike other coronavirus data sites, we do not rely on news or human crowd-sourced data. This information is available either in aggregated or sortable form in an api or csv tool. This tool can be used to compare state data in whole or in part. (posted May 11)
    More information:         https://coronavirusapi.com
                                         Coin Desk Article
                                         MIT Media Lab Video
    Contact:                        coronavirusapi@googlegroups.com

  • Speed of Covid-19 Spread - Rt.live is an up-to-date tracker of how fast COVID-19 is spreading in each state and by region and by those with no shelter-in-place policies. It was launched the week of April 13th by Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. “Rt” measures the average number of people who become infected by an infectious person. “As states decide whether and how to open back up, they’ll have to manage their infection rate carefully, and we hope dashboards like rt.live will be helpful in doing so,” Krieger says. By better illustrating how even small differences in shelter-in-place policy and compliance can exponentially change the severity of the impact of the virus, it could help convince people to stay inside. This kind of tool could also be helpful for determining where it’d be safe to reactivate some businesses, and quickly catch if virality is spiking and strict social distancing needs to be reinstated. (posted April 22)
    More information:    https://rt.live
    Contact:                   hello@rt.live
  • Corona Virus Data Resource Hub provides tools for creating visualizations of recent epidemiological data. The data is compiled by John Hopkins University. Organizations can receive a free "Jumpstart Kit" with the complete data set as well as a dashboard template to create specialized visualizations pertinent to the population they are serving. Many organizations are submitting their visualizations back to the Hub for other organizations to reference and share, increasing the library of data visualizations available to the public at large. (posted April 13)
    More information:           https://www.tableau.com/learn/series/getting-started-covid-19-data-hub
    Contact:                         https://www.tableau.com/

  • Finding People to Do Tracing & Other Public Outreach (The Social Practice) - In many states and counties, contract tracing and other work will require paid staff or highly trained volunteers to conduct hundreds of thousands of conversations via phone and text messaging with community members who have been exposed to COVID-19. The Social Practice uses widely available consumer technology to build and manage remote staff or volunteer teams capable of calling and texting millions of people at a higher volume, higher quality and lower cost than traditional vendor-based call centers and constituent contact operations. (posted April 24)
    More information:
    Johns Hopkins Memo on Workforce Needs - https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/emergency-situations-medical-devices/emergency-use-authorizations#covid19ivd
    Social Practice Workforce FInder - https://thesocialpractice.org  - Becky Bond, Co-Founder becky-at-thesocialpractice-dot-co / 415.595.0040

Coronavirus Data in the U.S. Is Terrible, and Here’s Why

CityLab          May 1, 2020
click here for the full article

For health departments, it can be challenging to stay on top of the numbers. This is especially true in the U.S., which lacks shared standards for Covid-19 data across states and counties. While it’s impossible to readjust the entire country’s data structure amid a pandemic, health departments nationwide can publish more complete metrics, following the advice of the COVID Tracking Project and trying to stick to its checklist. Covid-19 moves through the population with intensity, and we need the same level of commitment to move the data with the same speed and intensity, so we can make rapid decisions.

 

Remote Learning / Home Education / Homeschooling

Tech for Home Education and Remote Learning

  • US Department of Education Links

Department of Defense: Learn about careers in STEM fields

Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics: Kids' Zone

Department of Energy: Games and Activities; Virtual Field Trips to National Energy Labs

Environmental Protection Agency: Games, Quizzes, and Videos about the Environment

The Library of Congress: Presentations and Activities to Help Students Learn about History

NASA: Interactive Lessons about Space, Earth, Solar System and Universe;  Lessons from Astronauts about Living in Space;  STEM Activities for Students of All Ages

The Kennedy Center:  Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems; Tour the Kennedy Center with The Pigeon

The Smithsonian: Free Smithsonian STEM Games and Simulations; Meet the Animals of the National Zoo; 3D Exhibits and Virtual Tours; Smithsonian Magazine Ten Museums You Can Virtually Visit; The Museum of Natural History Virtual Tour; Digital Smithsonian American Art Museum; Distance Learning Resources

NOAA: Use Real-Time Ocean Data to Explore the Environment

USGS: Learn from Home About Physical science, Geography and Maps
(posted April 26)

 

 

    • 62 Tours of America's National Parks - Just because you can’t physically get out and go for a hike doesn’t mean that you can’t still explore some natural beauty. There are some excellent (and free) virtual tours of our incredible national parks just a click away.
    • Big Collection of Online Lessons & Activities -  ISTE & EdSurge have curated a list of free products offered by companies and organizations to support learning during extended school closures.
    • Wide Open School (via Common Sense Media) - Find family-friendly activities with this free collection of the best online learning experiences for kids curated by the editors at Common Sense.
    • Fullstack Academy - an online coding and career development bootcamp, is offering a free coding bootcamp prep course for two upcoming cohorts. The remote learning course will cover specific coding and JavaScript concepts.
    • Yumi - a science-based childhood meal delivery startup, has created a free children’s book to explain COVID-19 to little ones. Snoop Dogg even tweeted about it.

 

  • Online Safety & Good Digital Parenting                                                                                               (posted May 10)
    • Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) - Find guides, tools and resources for online safety and good digital parenting.
    • ConnectSafely.org - Find research-based safety tips, parents’ guidebooks, advice, news and twice-weekly webcasts on all aspects of tech use and policy.
    • National PTA - Find resources on social and emotional support, learning at home and healthy habits from National PTA.
    • Commons Sense Media - See below for many resources.

 

 

  • Instagram Live Stories - Lots of creative people are doing creative things for kids stuck at home. (posted April 30)
    • @mo.willems.studio - doodling every day at 10 am with the PIGEON, PIGGIE, and GERALD!
    • @wendymac - drawing lesson every morning at 10 am
    • @macbarnett reading his children’s books every day at noon
    •  @oliverjeffers reading kids’ books every day at 11
    •  @carsonellis is doing a daily art assignment - www.carsonellis.com
  • Presentation: "Crisis Mode Education: How to Make the Most of Learning in a Global Pandemic" -  Brazilian-born Jos Dirkx is with Singularity University and BeeNova. She offers that priority skills for the future are "critical thinking, creativity, collaboration all differentiate us from the machines we are building." The pandemic, she says, challenges many people's self-worth because identifying with school and work are a measure of personal value. Between traditional learning sessions, Jos strongly recommends interspersing a half hour of walking outside, a half hour of playing, a half hour of art, and half hours of other things like creative building or creating videos. Integrating technology should adapt to the local environment. For example, if there's no high-speed broadband, can a mobile phone or traditional hard line phone be a tool? (posted April 30)
    More information:         Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eQtTsprSW     
    About Jos Dirkx - https://josdirkx.com
    Contact:                        hi@josdirkx.com

Your Ideas

Silicon Valley Coronavirus Ideas for Mayors & Governors

We also want to know what ideas you have for mayors, governors, and the executives at the National Governors Association and National League of Cities. Send an email to t4a@t4a.org with your thoughts.

    • Q1 Are there organizations or people in the tech world, especially Silicon Valley, that are already working to collect this kind of tech-related info? We don't need to recreate the wheel. We can partner with ongoing work to avoid redundancy. Contact information would be great.
    • Q2 How can we utilize the technology to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery that will come afterward? These ideas should be things that in the short term require no significant personnel or resource commitment by governments because public officials are already overwhelmed.
    • Q3 Open-ended response. Got any additional thoughts/ideas/comments/questions that can support the work of cities and states?

 

 

 

 

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