NCAA and Indianapolis' Marion County Public Health Dept. Will Use Chexout Infectious Disease Surveillance Software for Tracking COVID Exposure

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, UNITED STATES, March 18, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- When a national field of 68 NCAA basketball teams gather here for the 2021 Men’s Basketball Championship this week, a Virginia software company, Chexout, will see its contact tracing software in use by the Marion County Public Health Department in Indianapolis.

Last year’s NCAA men’s tournament was canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions. This year, the NCAA will host 55 of the 67 games in Indianapolis with games scheduled for Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indiana Farmers Coliseum, and Lucas Oil Stadium.
The NCAA will allow up to 25 percent arena capacity in all rounds of the men’s tournament.

“The 2021 March Madness schedule is primarily a function of the health and safety protocols for all participants, respecting conference tournaments, balancing time away from campus for college student-athletes, competitive considerations for a national championship and fan engagement during a relatively traditional tournament timetable,” said Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, in a press statement.

An integral part of those safety is COVID contact tracing being conducted by the Marion County Public Health Department using Chexout software.

“Robust contact tracing continues to be critical for containing the spread of COVID-19 in our community,” said Virginia A. Caine, M.D., director and chief medical officer of the Marion County Public Health Department. “Having the ability to reach out quickly and efficiently to those infected with or exposed to the virus is part of our overall effort to minimize the effects of COVID-19 and keep positivity rates low.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), contact tracing slows the spread of COVID by letting people know they may have been exposed; helping people who have been exposed to get tested; and asking people to self-isolate or self-quarantine if they were in close contact with an infected person.

“Chexout allows state, county and city health professionals to view the spread of COVID infections in real time and deploy resources for communication, testing and tracing where they’re needed most. Depending on the healthcare provider, they can choose to have patients who tested positive for COVID automatically notified, or bypass that and contact them directly to let them know and immediately begin the contact tracing process. This kind of rapid response is what bends the arc on infection rates.” said Chexout CEO Joseph Paulini.

The software lets thousands of contact tracers and epidemiologists simultaneously utilize relevant health information to easily communicate with patients, visualize investigations through cluster diagrams and identify, monitor, and manage outbreaks as they evolve.

“With COVID variants now threatening new waves of the pandemic it is more important than ever that public health agencies have the ability to conduct accurate and timely contact tracing,” added Paulini. “When the pandemic initially overwhelmed health agencies and there just weren’t enough DIS (Disease Investigation Specialists) and contact tracers, getting a handle on the waves of infections was nearly impossible. Now that we are seeing a flattening of infection rates, real contact tracing becomes critical to finally getting ahead of this disaster.”

Last year, Chexout was chosen from a field of 45 companies for the CDC’s National Contact Tracing Pilot. The pilot was canceled in May but Paulini said the selection demonstrated the company’s expertise and leadership in the area.

It is too soon for the nation to relax safety protocols, according to Paulini.

“We may be close to getting COVID under control, but if we have learned anything it’s that letting our guard down now, or being unprepared for the next pandemic, is not an option.”

About Chexout

Chexout is a Vienna, Virginia-based Healthcare IT SaaS company, revolutionizing public health patient communications, investigation management, contact tracing, disease surveillance and reporting, infectious disease prevention and patient care and coordination software with a suite of products that generate cost savings, productivity, and patient management efficiencies for healthcare providers. For more information, please visit http://www.chexout.com.

Nancy Rose Senich
Chexout
+1 2022626996
nsenich@chexout.com
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