As many US states begin to loosen stay-at-home guidance related to the pandemic, public health officials have stressed the importance of implementing effective contact tracing, in addition to testing and a multitude of other responses to the pandemic.
Join us on Wednesday, June 17th at 11 am ET for a “Contact Tracing and Technology: A Deep Dive,” organized by the COVID Tech Task Force, and co-sponsored by the Berkman Klein Center, NYU’s Alliance for Public Interest Technology, TechCrunch, Betaworks Studios, and Hangar.
From 11 am to 12 pm ET, the event will kick off with a conversation between Jonathan Zittrain, Berkman Klein Center faculty director, Margaret Bourdeaux, Research Director for the Program for Global Public Policy at HMS, Mary Gray, BKC faculty associate and Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, Andrew McLaughlin, former Deputy CTO for the White House, and Mona Sloane, NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology to explore how digital data and public health tools might usefully supplement the well-established practice of contact tracing. The panel will dig into mobility data, the approach of “exposure notification” versus other possibilities for the use of digital data, and the challenges – particularly around privacy and security – that these possibilities raise.
Following the first session, hear from speakers such as Jonathan Jackson, founder of Dimagi, and Daniel Burka, leading COVID-19 efforts for New York State, for an extensive discussion on contact tracing/exposure notification applications and an exploration of some of the technology that is or will be available in the US.
Through conversations like these, the Berkman Klein Center aims to build bridges across public health and technology disciplines and communities of practice and to help inform state and community leaders, as they make urgently needed policy decisions in response to the pandemic.