A team of IT Services staff and partners from across campus received a CIO 100 award for their efforts to improve contact tracing methods used throughout the pandemic by Butler County health officials.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the local county health department was able to manage contact tracing efforts with their own staff and a team of volunteers using basic methods (e.g., MS Word, Excel, and sometimes pencil and paper). As the case numbers grew, increased workforce capacity and a more effective process were needed.

By developing a cloud-based, remote, technology-driven contact tracing program, the Miami team was able to increase the efficiency of the Butler County contact tracing process by more than 1,200 percent. 

The team included:

• Co-directors Kendall Leser, director of the Public Health program, and Brian Heneby, AVP of Solution Delivery
• Cameron Hay-Rollins, chair and professor of Anthroplogy
• John Virden, AVP Security Compliance and Risk Management
• Tony Kinne, security analyst III
• Doug Wallace, network engineer III
• Bob Black, assistant director, IT process and planning
• Hunter Fitch, senior data science and statistics double major

Developing and implementing the contact tracing program was truly a collaborative effort across the entire University, and this team exemplified teamwork and effective communication in getting this project done, according to IT services.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of this University-wide collaboration was the fact that the contact tracing program was developed and implemented in less than three weeks’ time in order to meet the health department’s urgent need for contact tracing in the county. The team leader and members of the IT Services department met daily for these three weeks to ensure that the contact tracing program would be ready in time.

“From my perspective, IT really helped the academic side do everything quickly and in the right way, following all the right procedures,” said Leser.

For more information about the team’s efforts, read the paper published in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice: An Academic-Health Department Community Partnership to Expand Disease Investigation and Contact Tracing Capacity and Efficiency During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

About the CIO 100 Awards

The annual CIO 100 Awards celebrate 100 organizations and the teams within them that are using IT in innovative ways to deliver business value, whether by creating competitive advantage, optimizing business processes, enabling growth, or improving relationships with customers. The award is an acknowledged mark of enterprise excellence. Coverage of the 2022 CIO 100 award-winning projects will be available online at CIO.com.