Maryland, dig contact tracing
| Submitted | May 6, 2020 |
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Communications
From: Caroline Haskins
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
BACKGROUND:
Different cities, counties, and states around the country are starting to research digital contracting. Broadly, digital contact tracing is any effort to use technology or a mobile app in order to track where a person diagnosed with COVID-19 (or, symptomatic of COVID-19) goes, and who they may have come into contact with.
Usually, a mobile app will use bluetooth technology or geolocation data in order to see where a person has been. Different public health authorities around the country are researching ways to safely and digitally share their COVID-19 test results with contact tracing apps. Other apps are relying on self-reported symptoms.
Sometimes, the term “exposure notification” is used instead of “contact tracing,” and that term refers to the notification people may get if they’ve come into contact with a person diagnosed with or symptomatic of COVID-19. Other times, the term "deconfinement app" is also used instead of “contact tracing,”and that term refers to the desired end goal: flattening the curve, ending confinement/quarantine.
RECORDS REQUESTED:
Therefore, I hereby request the following records — and please limit the time frame of all requested documents from March 1, 2020 to the time that this request is processed:
* Any digital communications including but not limited to emails and text messages) as well as documents, (including but not limited to PDF, word processing, excel, and slide documents) that mention one or any of the following terms: “digital contact tracing,” “contact tracing app,” “exposure notification,” “deconfinement app,” “technology-assisted contact tracing."
* Any digital communications including but not limited to emails and text messages) with representatives from Apple and Google, whose emails will have the domains @apple.com or @google.com, respectively.
* All instructional materials, presentations and presentation materials (including recorded video and audio, PowerPoint files, prepared remarks, and slides formats), and other guidance from A) Apple and/or Google, or B) any company pitching the development of digital contact tracing tools or a contact tracing app. This includes (a) any pitch or slide deks, (b) any notes taken during meetings, and (c) any other document that has been used to help explain the meeting/briefing to any party, including internal documentation, public relations materials, and executive summaries.
* Any contracts, purchase, orders, invoices, and receipts for services related to digital contact tracing, contact tracing apps, exposure notifications, or deconfinement apps.
* A copy of any privacy impact assessments, use policies, standard operating procedures, data retention policies, legal opinions, warranties, non-disclosure agreements, contracts, liability waivers, insurance agreements, Requests for Proposals, Responses to Requests for Proposal, Memorandums of Understanding, Letters of Interest, usage policies, or informal agreements related to digital contact tracing, contact tracing apps, exposure notifications, or deconfinement apps.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public in the process of reporting for BuzzFeed News, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. Therefore, I hereby request that all fees are waived in the processing of this request.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Caroline Haskins
From: Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
The Office of Governmental Affairs forwarded to the Deputy Director of
OPASS your recent email in the nature of a PIA request. We will formally
respond if you so desire, but I thought that this informal preliminary
response might serve to scratch your itch better than a formal one which
will likely result in the disclosure of very little information.
Maryland is undertaking a program of contact tracing and for that purpose
entered into a very recent contract with the National Opinion Research
Center (NORC) operated out of the University of Chicago. That organization
is now under contract with MD to perform no fewer than 150,000 cases for
which they will be paid nearly $30 mill. We are also in the process of
recruiting staff to work out of the local health departments to conduct
add'l contact tracing by phone, and we are in the planning stage of an ad
campaign to encourage public participation in the contact tracing programs
soon to be employed.
Preliminary to this initiative, I personally did have occasion to mention
the Google/Apple cooperative initiative which has been the subject of some
recent press, using existing technology to determine and notify persons
potentially exposed to covin-19 by automated alerts to cell phones, if I
understand the capability correctly. That was done during a telephone
conference within the past month to which I was a party. I know of no
written correspondence, email or otherwise, addressing this capability.
Frankly, there was no interest expressed in pursuing that option for MD. I
have not heard the issue mentioned again since that time when I mentioned
it myself at least a couple of weeks ago and MDH subsequently opted for
traditional contact tracing offered by firms like NORC.
If you really wish to pursue the formal route for comprehensive PIA
response, it is conceivable that we could hire a firm to conduct a Boolean
search of operative words from the entire email archive of MDH, which
employs some 9,000 personnel. That seems to be request but I assume that
could be very labor intensive, if it is possible at all. MDH data contains
massive amounts of PHI which cannot be disclosed, so great care would have
to be engaged to isolate public information from private. Or we could
possibly conduct a Boolean search of only certain MDH programs or
administrations if you opted to narrow your search, knowing that most
programs would have no cause ever even to mention this technology. I am
not certain that this could be done because I have never requested or
attempted it, but regardless of cost, which could be substantial, there is
a strong likelihood that not a single communication would be uncovered. At
least I have not rec'd or sent or know about a single written communication
concerning this technology, in which I have an intellectual interest, but
as a procurement officer I do not make the determination of programmatic
needs, only conduct the procurement to fill program needs after they have
been determined. To my knowledge, no such procurement has been considered
by MDH other than my mentioning the option by phone on one occasion.
If you like, I could refer you to the program experts who opted to hire
NORC rather than explore the Google/Apple cell phone option. Perhaps one
of them could explain why that route was not selected or even investigated,
at least to my knowledge. Or if you so requested, we could conduct a
search of their emails only instead of all of the emails of the entire
department, as your initial email seems to request.
If you'd like to discuss this by phone, you can reach me on my cell at
443-974-8940. We'll hold your request in a pending status until we learn
whether you wish to proceed and in the meantime, try to obtain pricing for
a Boolean search of what will likely amount to millions of emails just
since March 1, 2020, only to learn that the subject has not been discussed
at all other than orally and briefly in passing as described above.
Feel free to be in touch again at your leisure. If you have made a similar
request of other large government agencies, perhaps you can advise how one
goes about a Boolean search and what it may cost if you wish for MDH to
perform one. Personally I'd like to learn more about this technology, but
it is not my decision to pursue that route and those responsible for
deciding how to go about contact tracing have taken another path.
Hope this is helpful to you. Let me know if you need more. Thank you.
*Dana Dembrow*
Director of Procurement
Office of Procurement and Support Services (OPASS)
Maryland Department of Health (MDH)
201 W. Preston St., Room 416A
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Phone: (410) 767-0974
FAX: (410-333-5958)
dana.dembrow1@maryland.gov
*MDH is committed to customer service. Click here
<http://www.doit.state.md.us/selectsurvey/TakeSurvey.aspx?agencycode=DHMH&SurveyID=86M2956>
to
take the Customer Satisfaction Survey. *
Maryland is Open for Business. If you are an eMaryland Marketplace
vendor, CLICK
HERE <https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Maryland_eMMA> to complete preliminary
registration for "*eMMA*" Maryland's new eProcurement platform launching in
mid-July, or send questions to central.procurement@maryland.gov
--
NOTICE: This message and the accompanying documents are intended only for
the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed and may
contain information that is privileged, or exempt from disclosure under
applicable law. If the reader of this email is not the intended recipient,
you are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from reading,
disseminating, distributing, or copying this communication. If you have
received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and
destroy the original transmission.
-
changingMD
From: Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
In follow-up to our discussion late last week, I did follow-up with the
evaluation team that selected NORC for Maryland's contact tracing. It
turns out that there was no consideration of or written communication about
the Google/Apple cooperative effort to develop a contact tracing cell phone
app. That's unfortunate in my view, but I'm not with the program
responsible for selecting approaches, only procuring them after that
decision has been made.
Apparently there was brief conversation about the cell phone tracing app
after MD entered into the contract with NORC, which is probably not going
to be the only source of contact tracing in MD. I've asked for copies of
those emails and will provide them to you upon receipt with a formal
response to your PIA request for which there will be no charge unless we
encounter some unforeseen obstacle not presently apparent.
*Dana Dembrow*
Director of Procurement
Office of Procurement and Support Services (OPASS)
Maryland Department of Health (MDH)
201 W. Preston St., Room 416A
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Phone: (410) 767-0974
FAX: (410-333-5958)
dana.dembrow1@maryland.gov
*MDH is committed to customer service. Click here
<http://www.doit.state.md.us/selectsurvey/TakeSurvey.aspx?agencycode=DHMH&SurveyID=86M2956>
to
take the Customer Satisfaction Survey. *
Maryland is Open for Business. If you are an eMaryland Marketplace
vendor, CLICK
HERE <https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Maryland_eMMA> to complete preliminary
registration for "*eMMA*" Maryland's new eProcurement platform launching in
mid-July, or send questions to central.procurement@maryland.gov
--
NOTICE: This message and the accompanying documents are intended only for
the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed and may
contain information that is privileged, or exempt from disclosure under
applicable law. If the reader of this email is not the intended recipient,
you are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from reading,
disseminating, distributing, or copying this communication. If you have
received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and
destroy the original transmission.
-
changingMD
From: Caroline Haskins
Hi Dana! Sorry for the late follow up. Thanks so much for this information. You have a few minutes to hop on the phone today and run through this?
From: Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Sure. My ph. # is 443-974-8940. Available now until phone conference at
9:00 a.m., then again afterwards.
*Dana Dembrow*
Director of Procurement
Office of Procurement and Support Services (OPASS)
Maryland Department of Health (MDH)
201 W. Preston St., Room 416A
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Phone: (410) 767-0974
FAX: (410-333-5958)
dana.dembrow1@maryland.gov
*MDH is committed to customer service. Click here
<http://www.doit.state.md.us/selectsurvey/TakeSurvey.aspx?agencycode=DHMH&SurveyID=86M2956>
to
take the Customer Satisfaction Survey. *
Maryland is Open for Business. If you are an eMaryland Marketplace
vendor, CLICK
HERE <https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Maryland_eMMA> to complete preliminary
registration for "*eMMA*" Maryland's new eProcurement platform launching in
mid-July, or send questions to central.procurement@maryland.gov
--
NOTICE: This message and the accompanying documents are intended only for
the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed and may
contain information that is privileged, or exempt from disclosure under
applicable law. If the reader of this email is not the intended recipient,
you are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from reading,
disseminating, distributing, or copying this communication. If you have
received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and
destroy the original transmission.
-
changingMD
From: Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
This serves as a follow up to Dana Dembrow's May 7 and May 12, 2020
responses to your original Public Information Act (PIA) request dated May
7, 2020 requesting certain public records. In his May 12 response, Mr.
Dembrow indicated that copies of emails would be made available to you
concerning Maryland's contact tracing. I trust information provided is
responsive to your request.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Geoff Dougherty -MDH- <geoff.dougherty@maryland.gov>
Date: Tue, May 12, 2020 at 11:19 AM
Subject: Apple/Google tracing e-mails
To: Larrie Bennett -MDH- <larrie.bennett@maryland.gov>
--
Geoff Dougherty, PhD, MPH
Deputy Director, Population Health
Heath Services Cost Review Commission
Maryland Department of Health
(443) 543-6837
geoff.dougherty@maryland.gov
*Maryland Department of Health is committed to customer service. Click
here
<http://www.doit.state.md.us/selectsurvey/TakeSurvey.aspx?agencycode=DHMH&SurveyID=86M2956>
to
take the Customer Satisfaction Survey. *
NOTICE: This message and the accompanying documents are intended only for
the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed and may
contain information that is privileged, or exempt from disclosure under
applicable law. If the reader of this email is not the intended recipient,
you are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from reading,
disseminating, distributing, or copying this communication. If you have
received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and
destroy the original transmission.
--
Larrie Bennett, Asst. Director
Maryland Department of Health
Office of Procurement & Support Services
201 W. Preston Street
Room 416C
410.767.5816 Tel
410.333.5958 Fax
*Maryland Department of Health is committed to customer service. **Click
here
<http://www.doit.state.md.us/selectsurvey/TakeSurvey.aspx?agencycode=DHMH&SurveyID=86M2956>
to
take the Customer Satisfaction Survey.*
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is
for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential
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message.
--
NOTICE: This message and the accompanying documents are intended only for
the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed and may
contain information that is privileged, or exempt from disclosure under
applicable law. If the reader of this email is not the intended recipient,
you are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from reading,
disseminating, distributing, or copying this communication. If you have
received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and
destroy the original transmission.
-
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