80 | Lessons from Contact Tracing During the Pandemic On the Evidence

This episode of On the Evidence explores lessons from contact tracing for COVID-19 that should inform current and future efforts to rebuild the public health field, particularly its workforce, after the public health emergency ends.

This episode features the following guests:

• Elinor Higgins, a policy associate at the National Academy for State Health Policy
• Shelley Fiscus, a pediatrician and senior policy consultant at the National Academy for State Health Policy
• Rachel Brash, a strategist in the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development who helped oversee the Baltimore Health Corps Initiative
• Shan-Tia Danielle, who worked as a contact tracer and led a team of contact tracers for the Washington State COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Partnership
• Candace Miller, a principal researcher at Mathematica who directed the Washington State COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Partnership
• Shaun Stevenson, an advisory services analyst at Mathematica who supported the Baltimore Health Corps Initiative

Episode transcript: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/charting-a-course-for-public-health-based-on-lessons-from-contact-tracing-during-the-pandemic

Learn more about the Washington State COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Partnership between the Washington State Department of Health, Mathematica, Comagine Health, and Allegis: https://mathematica.org/news/mathematica-partners-with-comagine-health-allegis-and-washington-state-on-contact-tracing

Read Mathematica’s interim (https://mathematica.org/publications/baltimore-health-corps-initiative-a-transitional-jobs-program-to-improve-public-health) and final issue briefs about lessons from Mathematica’s coaching of career navigators who supported more than 300 community health workers under the Baltimore Health Corps Initiative: https://mathematica.org/publications/lessons-learned-from-the-baltimore-health-corps-initiative-a-transitional-jobs-program-to-improve

Read an independent evaluation of the Baltimore Health Corps Initiative, prepared by Abt Associates: https://moed.baltimorecity.gov/news/press-releases/2022-08-19-evaluation-baltimore-health-corps-pilot-economic-and-public-health

Explore a dashboard developed by Mathematica and the Public Health Foundation to present key demographic characteristics of (1) contact tracing trainees who received training through the TRAIN Learning Network and (2) the communities they serve: https://www.mathematica.org/dataviz/building-community-based-contact-tracing

Read a blog explaining the purpose behind the contact-tracing dashboard developed by Mathematica and the Public Health Foundation: https://mathematica.org/blogs/insights-for-building-a-community-based-contact-tracing-workforce

Explore an interactive map and table developed by Mathematica and the National Academy for State Health Policy that tracks state approaches to contact tracing for COVID-19: https://www.nashp.org/state-approaches-to-contact-tracing-covid-19/

Explore a Mathematica data visualization showing the importance of demographics and other community characteristics in informing approaches to contact tracing: https://www.mathematica.org/dataviz/grounding-state-contact-tracing-efforts-in-context

Listen to an episode of On the Evidence about the variation in state approaches to contact tracing: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/understanding-the-variation-in-states-covid-19-contact-tracing-approaches

Listen to an episode of On the Evidence about the importance of building a community-based contact-tracing workforce: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/contact-tracing-workforce-driving-equitable-sustained-risk-mitigation-in-a-post-pandemic-world

Listen to an episode of On the Evidence about the importance of equity in implementing effective contact tracing: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/early-lessons-for-effective-and-equitable-contact-tracing