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 Today in Health it, the story is how the NFL tackled the spread of c Ovid 19 among players and staff. My name is Bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this week in Health IT a channel dedicated to keeping Health IT staff current and engaged. Today's sponsor is Health lyrics.

Health Lyrics is my company. I do executive coaching for healthcare leaders around technology and technology strategy. If you are interested, check it out@healthlyrics.com. Alright, on to today's story. You know, sometimes I choose to do these stories just because they're interesting to me. You know, this is one of those cases, this one has a cursory health IT component and that'll be the so what for today.

Uh, but really for the most part, it's just interesting to me and I think it'll be interesting to you. So, uh, today we're gonna take a look at the Fierce Healthcare Story by Heather Landy on how the NFL tackled the spread of COVID 19 among players and staff. Uh, here's, here's a couple of experts, uh, or excerpts from the, uh, story.

He says there's no evidence that the virus crossed the line of scrimmage, so to speak, and this is what he said in a call with reporters on Monday. Uh, despite the close physical contact during the playing of football, genomic epidemiology, data analyzed by the NFL indicates there was no on field transmission of the virus during the leagues games.

Christina Mack, MD and epidemiologist said, and she's an advisor to the NFL. Uh, if you look at the data, one thing that shines through is that context matters. Football is played in a well ventilated area with a lot of airflow and with brief interaction on the field. She said. , what are some of the other ways that the league tackled the spread of Covid 19?

Well, you know, this goes into, you know, the, they did what you think they did, right? They did a lot of tests. They did 623,000 tests on 11,400, uh, players and staff members. And of those tests and of those staff members, 329, approximately 2.9%, uh, had confirmed cases of Covid 19. And let's see, according to the CDC report,

Uh oh. So they published a scientific paper. The NFLs published a scientific paper with the CDC, uh, around, you know, the protocols they used and, and just really they, you know, it's almost like one of those episodes on ESPN of, you know, this is the season in a capsule, but it was done from a healthcare perspective.

So they wrote a scientific paper on this. And according to the CDC report, the NFL's Covid 19 mitigation strategy can be broadly . Applicable throughout society to limit the spread of the virus, including to settings such as long-term care, facility, schools, and high density environments. So what are some of the other things they did?

They also did away with all those things that you think, right? So there, there weren't a bunch of players sitting in a room watching game film, uh, in close proximity to each other. There was no. Uh, they, you know, the meetings were outside as, as we talked about there, there wasn't the, uh, the community, uh, eating facilities as well, you know, we're sort of done away with.

So they did a lot of common sense things. So let's get to the technology aspect of this. One of the technology things they did is they implemented contact tracing. , right? So the league required players and staff to use a wearable device provided by a company called, uh, connection. Connection, K-I-N-E-X-O-N.

Wow. They do, they do it all. They do the K and the X connection. What it does is it warns the players if they are too close to one another. So if the, if the, uh, let's call 'em bracelets, I'm not even sure what they are, but if, if the bracelets get too close to one another, it'll actually, I don't know, vibrate or emit a sound and let the players know, Hey, you're, you're within

You're too close to one another in this context. Uh, as well, it it also records their proximity and the duration of the proximity 'cause these are things that matter in the transmission of this, of this virus, right? Uh, they can also create, you know, chains of infection by, by doing this contact tracing, there's a lot to be gained through contact tracing and contact tracing data.

Right. I mean, it just, it, it, it's there. There's just so much, uh, that we can understand and, and I really appreciate the NFL, the NFL players and the players association agreeing to do this. It, obviously, it was done in the best interest of the players and it wasn't done to track the players. Where are they going?

What are they doing? And maybe they didn't wear those, those bracelets when they weren't, uh, in training and, and whatnot. But, but, and we could talk about the privacy aspects of this and we, we probably will on another show. But for this, you know, you have a, a, an organization like the NFL in agreement with the players, uh, on the best, in the best interest of the players actually wearing these in performing contact tracing.

You get a ton of this data, you get to look at this data and it really unfolds and helps us to understand, uh, how this virus moves, how it spreads in this one community. And this is a community of people that are pretty close together. They're playing together. Uh, they're working together. And they were able to identify protocols that worked with this kind of data.

So, you know, the question does come back to. , uh, where else can we use contact tracing? Should we use contact tracing? Should we use it in the general public, or is it better in these kinds of cases? Is it, is it better in these closed communities where we can use them as sort of a, uh, a, a case study, if you will, for the rest of society in how we should interact?

Uh, it's, you know, it's not only the NFL, you could probably identify . Uh, you know, companies where this makes sense to use, you probably, uh, other sports teams obviously make sense, uh, for this to use. You could have communities and community associations agree to do this kind of thing. You could have like Subdivision Community Association.

Uh, but you know, again, it's not as, it's not as a comprehensive of a set of data. It's a different set of data than you would have say in the NFL. So I, I think that's really interesting. You know, my so what for this is, uh, this is, uh, an interesting case study, . Uh, it's just an interesting story and for, uh, educating the public.

I think this is an interesting story to utilize to say, you know, we've looked at this data of the NFL of these . Very fit, highly talented players working in close proximity with each other. And here's what we've learned. And by spreading this information, we can, uh, encourage people to get back together, but to get back together in a way that is safe.

Outdoor meetings, outdoor, uh, kinds of interactions and those kind of things, uh, so that we are safe in how we move forward. Again. . Not a public service announcement for me. My so what on this is we can use this kind of data. There are appropriate places to collect this data, and it becomes very powerful in the education of our communities.

Again, as I told you, not a huge health IT component. Just a really interesting story. So if you get a chance to check it out, fierce Healthcare, Heather Landy. And it is, the story is titled How the NFL Tackled the Spread of Covid Ovid 19 Among Players and Staff. Alright, that's all for today. If you know of someone who might benefit from our channel, please forward them a note.

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