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In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, tech giants have chipped in on a panoply of efforts to shore up data that can help track, trace, and curb the spread of the virus, from Apple and Google’s collaboration on contact tracing technology to Amazon’s funding for several pandemic-related research projects. But an independent group of researchers thinks it has a better way to lend a hand. (Brodwin, 6/10)

Singapore kicked off a global rush to develop contact tracing apps for the novel coronavirus when the city-state launched an apparently new system in March. But the project actually drew inspiration from a 2014 U.S. high school project that won an international prize but found no backers - until now. It all started when Rohan Suri created an app at Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia, to tell his mom to leave home for the bus stop when he was seven minutes away. (Dave, 6/10)

One day after he signed a bill the Legislature sent him expanding COVID-19 reporting requirements, Gov. Charlie Baker filed a new data-collection proposal that he hopes will "put a finer point" on tracking the virus's impact. At a press conference in Lawrence, Baker said his bill would build on the law he signed by requiring more reporting of COVID-related data to the Department of Public Health, empowering the DPH to issue fines to any parties that do not comply, and by removing elder housing facilities from mandates to report health information about their tenants. (Lisinski, 6/9)

As an infectious disease nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic, Debbie Sorensen works as a memory detective on a tight deadline. The mystery she's trying to untangle is where an infected person has been and who's been with them. Her sleuthing tools include a telephone, a wall calendar and the firm, but calming voice that comes with 20 years of experience with the Salt Lake County Public Health Department in Salt Lake City. (Becker, 6/10)

President Trump’s top Medicare official said Tuesday that expanded access to telemedicine should continue after the coronavirus pandemic recedes and that officials are examining ways to act without waiting for legislation from Congress. “I can’t imagine going back,” said Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told STAT during a live virtual event. “People recognize the value of this, so it seems like it would not be a good thing to force our beneficiaries to go back to in-person visits.” (Ross, 6/9)

Apps will catch on as a dominant way patients seek access to their medical data, since—unlike existing technology—they're designed with patients in mind, the Trump administration's top health IT official said Tuesday, reaffirming a vision behind recent interoperability and information-blocking regulations. The rules from CMS and HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, released in March, will require healthcare providers and insurers to adopt technologies that will let patients download their medical data onto mobile apps. (Cohen, 6/9)