RAPID: SCH: A Framework for Epidemic Contact Tracing Using Multi-contextual Information

University Of North Texas, Denton TX

Investigators

Abstract

In order to stop the Ebola Epidemic it is essential to do effective "contact tracing." The problem is complex as the contact tracing has to be done retroactively after a patient is diagnosed with the disease. Any lapse in contact tracing could potentially fail to track citizens at risk and spreading of the disease. Ad hoc tracing, relying on the infected carrier?s recollection of places visited and people met may lead to inaccurate tracking. Similarly, relying on the recollections of individuals who may have come into contact with the carrier cannot accurately identify those who are at high risk and those who are at low risk of contracting the disease. This project proposes a framework that uses existing readily available technologies that can do effective, automated contact tracing without compromising the privacy of the users. The framework has two parts: aggregator - which collects information from the users, and analyzer --- which processes the information to do contact tracing. This project will develop advances in algorithms to minimize false positives, storage features for context and social data that is both scalable and will preserve privacy of potential contacts. The best current method for managing the Ebola epidemic currently is through contact tracing; that is, retrospectively identifying anyone with whom the affected person has come in contact. The current contact tracing system is time intensive and error-prone. The proposed system will do the tracing automatically, using a scalable, privacy preserving method that draws data from the affected person?s social network and smart phone context. The proposed framework is not only applicable to contact tracing for Ebola, but also can be used for contact tracing of other infectious diseases, as well as emergency preparedness in the case of bio-terrorism attacks. The technologies developed as part of this project, such as privacy preserving storage architecture, can also be applied to other problems.