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How Maven Helps Reduce the Spread of COVID-19

Now that we are all learning to live with concepts such as ‘social distancing and/or self-quarantining,’ another public health concept, contact tracing, is worth closer examination.

In public health, contact tracing is defined as the process of identifying people who may have come into contact with an infected person, along with the subsequent collection of pertinent information about each contact.

There are nearly 40 implementations of the Maven Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Management platform spread across 23 U.S. and international state and local public health agencies. The platform is used to monitor and track the spread of more than 90 communicable diseases.

Here’s one sample scenario to illustrate how Maven COVID-19, our newest software module, performs contact tracing:

  1. A person (Joe) goes to the doctor due to a fever and bad cough. The doctor suspects COVID-19, orders necessary lab tests, and advises Joe to self-quarantine at home. Simultaneously, the doctor uses the provider portal to enter information about Joe into Maven to help meet requirements for immediate reporting of a suspected case of COVID-19 to public health authorities.
  1. The new Maven case is populated by Joe’s medical provider with detailed information about Joe, including his age, symptoms, travel history, and any chronic diseases. Joe’s symptoms and relevant details are shared automatically, electronically, immediately with the local public health agency.
  1.  Lab test results are completed and electronically, automatically imported to Maven. Joe’s status is updated to ‘presumptive positive’ and his labs are sent to the CDC for confirmation. The local and/or state public health agency notifies the CDC.
  1. From the comfort of home, Joe receives messages from the public health agency via text and email. Joe's family members and others who were in close contact with Joe will also receive messages to self-quarantine and to follow up on symptoms as they arise.
  1. Maven automatically places each case into a variety of workflows for epidemiologists to track/monitor cases, and update relevant stakeholders at regular intervals. Some of these workflows include CDC reporting, detailed patient updates for follow-ups, and any other relevant insights that can be shared among healthcare organizations to help inform containment measures.

For example, the Maven COVID-19 software module can be used to help public health authorities visualize where the outbreak is not contained, and who is potentially exposed to help reduce the virus’s spread.

The Conduent Maven COVID-19 module plays an important role in the reporting ecosystem, allowing public health officials to track the virus, identify those at risk, and also inform containment decisions among key stakeholders locally, and across the nation.

 

For more information, please reach out to us at Maven@Conduent.com.

 

 

About the Author

Pamela Knight-Schwartz, MPH is the Director of Public Health Consulting at Conduent Public Health Solutions. She has more than 15 years of experience in public health informatics, working in immunization information systems, disease surveillance systems, and prescription drug monitoring programs in corporate and government environments.

Profile Photo of Pamela Knight-Schwartz, MPH
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