HealthSpace signs first paid contract with contact tracing solution

9th July 2020

By: Natasha Odendaal

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Vancouver-headquartered HealthSpace Data Systems has signed the first paid contract in a package that includes the use of its extensive contact tracing solution.

Mecklenburg County Health Department, in North Carolina, will use HealthSpace’s HSCloud Suite for contact tracing in a deal worth $157 800 over the next five years.

HealthSpace, an established government software-as-a-service (SaaS) company serving more than 500 government organisations and agencies across North America, extended its HSCloud Suite and My Health Department products to serve these agencies as a fully automated digital contact tracing platform for Covid-19.

In the pursuit of tracking, tracing and capping the virus by public health agencies, HealthSpace is promoting the collection, analysis and leveraging of the information through fully automated contact tracing.

The company’s contact tracing solution has been deployed by several public health agencies, including those in the entire State of Hawaii, as well as counties in Washington State, Illinois, Michigan and North Carolina.

The company also started working with Montgomery county, in Ohio, Santa Cruz county, in Arizona, and McDonough and Schuyler counties, both in Illinois, to use the HSCloud Suite platform for Covid-19 contact tracing.

HealthSpace provided free access to the use of the platform in these counties on June 10, June 6 and May 25, respectively, for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The platform can be deployed within 48 hours to any jurisdiction in North America and most agencies are able to complete their initial setup within two weeks,” said HealthSpace CEO Silas Garrison.

The company’s HSCloud Suite already serves as a frontline tool for these departments to help track and prevent the spread of epidemiological outbreaks such as foodborne illness.

“It also extends beyond the food service industry and is used to inspect long-term care facilities, hotels, tattoo parlours and a myriad of other businesses and services where the spread of communicable diseases is pronounced,” he explained.

“In its initial outreach to existing customers regarding Covid-19, HealthSpace learned of the growing need to scale contact tracing efforts for public health departments.”

HealthSpace has since assisted both new and existing clients with Covid-19 contact tracing.

“Mecklenburg county was in our sales pipeline to purchase HSCloud for use in their on-site sewage and well programme. By adding our contact tracing platform to their existing quote, we were able to close the sale faster at a higher than previously quoted price,” Garrison added.

The HealthSpace platform replaces the manual process of calling each individual contact with an automated system that sends out a unique and secure link through text message and email with a daily questionnaire for each of the contacts being traced.

The questionnaire allows the contact to enter their symptoms, temperature and a variety of other information as directed by each agency.

The HealthSpace platform also allows those filling out the questionnaire to list places they have recently been, such as a grocery store, and people they have been in direct contact with.

The new contacts are then enrolled in the daily contact tracing questionnaire, which multiplies reach and helps control community spread more effectively, the company explains.

“Information is securely stored inside of HealthSpace’s secure platform for detailed reporting and analysis, helping agencies make informed decisions in real-time,” Garrison commented.

This provides streamlined data collection with less error and redundancy.

HealthSpace’s SaaS platform and cloud-based portal for managing apps, licensing, permits and other business and compliance data is already used by hundreds of government agencies in the US and Canada.

Over the last decade, HealthSpace has successfully developed both cloud and mobile applications, offering one of the only self-serve enterprise suites for government and providing greater power to the end-user.

HealthSpace has also entered into the fintech space by creating a payment platform that streamlines the intake of government revenue for the agencies it serves.

The group also secured a $1-million contract with Orange County Health Care Agency, in California, for the use of HSCloud for oversight of five regulatory programme areas such as restaurants, pools and hazardous materials.

HealthSpace may add automated contact tracing to the contract with Orange county in the future.

While HealthSpace remains focused on North America, the company has received inquiries from abroad about its contact tracing solution.

Discussing the viability of automated contact tracing for Covid-19 in other parts of the globe, he said that there is no reason why those public health departments could not use such technology.

“It is the same situation everywhere. Public health departments around the world are working 12- to18-hour days, many times seven days a week, to keep pace with the workflow needed for contact tracing during the pandemic,” he explained.

“Whether it is a province of South Africa or any country region in Africa, Australia, Europe or on other continents, these agencies are looking for solutions that the automated contact tracing platform checks all the boxes for – the speed to implement the technology and start working with it, the time savings for frontline health department agents, and the ability to extend current activities and resources. This appears to be as true around the globe as it is in the US and Canada.”

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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