Widespread Testing Starts at the Local Level

As the world attempts to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and strive toward a new normal, I’m proud of the work Splunk is doing to help communities and organizations rise to the challenges of this difficult time. I’m particularly proud of how our products and teams are helping public officials save lives, reopen public spaces and restore damaged economies through COVID-19 testing.

Data can save lives in a crisis and, in my view, is the only way forward. We need widespread, equitable access to testing so that public health officials can understand the path and progress of the pandemic, and we as individuals can begin the return to our work and social lives. 

This week, Tarrant County, Texas, rolled out the new COVID-19 Testing and Data Response Platform, developed by a coalition that includes Splunk, Accenture, Adobe, Oracle, Datahouse, Nuharbor Security, Globant and WhyLine, in coordination with the nonprofit Alliance for Innovation and government IT leaders from the City of San Jose. The platform is intended to help government organizations address key challenges associated with large-scale testing. We’re providing this solution free of charge to public health officials in communities across the United States.

The platform delivers an end-to-end testing experience, managing online citizen intake, critical symptom evaluation and appointment scheduling; it also helps the testing sites manage operations safely, and provides health officials with real-time dashboards to understand emerging patterns and respond proactively.

Tarrant County is the first location to use this newly developed solution. Encompassing just over 900 square miles, Tarrant County is home to nearly 2.1 million people and includes the cities of Fort Worth and Arlington. With the coalition, we worked with officials from Tarrant County, as well as the cities of Arlington and Fort Worth, to roll the platform out in less than a week, after less than a month of development.  

This project is the result of extensive collaboration, both internally and with our coalition partners. We’re excited about the potential of this solution to help state and local governments across the country. I look forward to sharing many meaningful success stories in the weeks and months to come, as we all work to get the necessary testing infrastructure in place.

There’s no simple playbook for beating this pandemic and getting to a new normal. To get us all there, we will need an innovative, data-led process that will challenge every country, region, municipality and industry. We’re going to have to rethink how we work, socialize and provide essential services. The first step, especially as we await more effective treatments and an eventual vaccine, is widely available and efficient testing. I’m glad that we’re able to be a part of that solution. We look forward to doing our part to support the public/private collaboration that aims to protect public health and bolster the global economy.

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Thanks!
Doug Merritt