Innovation and Partnership: COVID-19 Exposure Notifications in Washington State

Washington State Department of Health has been recognized as a 2023 HIMSS Public Health Davies Award recipient.

Washington state, in partnership with the University of Washington, Apple, Google, the Brotman Baty Institute, Microsoft and Microsoft Research, MITRE, Amazon Web Services, the Association of Public Health Laboratories, the Internet Security Research Group, the National Institutes of Health, and the Linux Foundation, collaborated to implement “WA Notify,” a novel, opt-in, privacy-preserving exposure notification (EN) system using Bluetooth on smartphones to alert users of anonymous COVID-19 exposures. This privacy-preserving exposure notfication tool was created to complement traditional contact tracing systems. 

HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence

The HIMSS the Davies Award for Public Health showcases recipients who leverage the power of information and technology to enhance public health, promote health equity, and provide actionable insights to improve the wellness of the community they serve. Specifically, Davies Award for Public Health case studies reflect the work of public health organizations leveraging information and technology to enhance core public health services (contact tracing, syndromic disease surveillance reporting, electronic case reporting, notifiable disease surveillance, vital records reporting, electronic reportable laboratory results reporting, and immunization registry reporting and queries) and drive faster, more actionable intelligence to improve community health.  The Davies Awards program promotes HIMSS’s vision and mission by recognizing and sharing use cases, model practices and lessons learned on how to improve health and wellness through the power of information and technology.