Guidelines for the Implementation and Use of Digital Tools 

to Augment Traditional Contact Tracing 

COVID-19 Contact Tracing for Health Departments 

Version 1 

Table of Contents 

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 1 

Tools Overview .............................................................................................................................................................. 2 

Case Management Tools.......................................................................................................................................... 2 

Proximity and Exposure Notification Tools............................................................................................................. 2 

Important Features........................................................................................................................................................ 3 

Introduction 

This document describes two broad categories of digital contact tracing tools, how and where they can improve 

timeliness and efficiency in the contact tracing process, and defines their minimum and preferred features. This 

document is based on research and ongoing discussions with contact tracing and informatics experts across local, state, 

territorial, tribal, and federal government agencies; national public health associations; academic consortia; and 

nongovernmental organizations. 

This document builds on previous guidance; it is a living body of knowledge and will be revised frequently in response to 

new information and the evolving needs of state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments. 

Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. 

Department of Health and Human Services or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

cdc.gov/coronavirus 

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Tools Overview 

Case Management Tools 

Tools that make the traditional contact tracing 

process faster and more efficient 

Proximity and Exposure Notification Tools 

Tools that may help identify more contacts and 

notify them of exposure faster than traditional 

contact tracing alone 

• These tools can streamline the electronic capture 

and management of data on patients and 

contacts by enabling automation of contact 

notification and follow-up, and by allowing 

patients and contacts to electronically self-report 

(e.g. demographic and clinical data, contacts, 

services needed). 

• Workflows may integrate with surveillance 

systems or other workforce management tools 

(e.g., virtual call centers, test scheduling, support 

services). 

• Voluntary, opt-in tools using Bluetooth or GPS 

technologies (most commonly via smartphone 

apps) can be used to estimate the proximity and 

duration of an individual’s exposure to patient(s) 

diagnosed with COVID-19. 

• More data (from pilots and limited 

implementations) are needed to quantify the 

public health value of these tools. 

Technology can support case investigation and contact tracing but cannot take the 

place of a trained public health workforce for interviewing, counseling, and providing 

support for those impacted by COVID-19. 

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Important Features 

Tables 1 and 2 define minimum and preferred features for case management tools and for proximity and exposure 

notification tools, organized by contact tracing task and crosscutting theme, respectively. A minimum feature is defined 

as one that all health departments should invest in. A preferred feature is defined as an enhancement that makes the 

contact tracing process timelier and/or more efficient. When only one category is listed, this indicates that additional 

functionality may not be needed. 

Table 1. Minimum and preferred features of digital contact tracing tools, by contact tracing task 

For health departments1 that choose to use only case 

management tools for contact tracing, the tools should: 

For health departments that choose to supplement contact 

tracing with the use of voluntary, opt-in proximity or exposure 

notification tools, the tools should:2 

Patient Identification 

Minimum 

• Enable manual import of existing case investigation / 

patient data from health department and/or laboratory 

information systems 

• Enable patients diagnosed with COVID-19 to electronically 

self-report confirmed test results, data facilitating 

connection with services needed to support 14-day selfquarantine period (e.g., safe housing, food, medicine), and 

best means of communication 

• Enable health departments or laboratories to authenticate 

self-reported test results as a precondition for automated 

contact notification 

Preferred 

• Enable real-time automated synchronization of case 

investigation / patient data from health department 

and/or laboratory information systems 

• Provide electronic reporting feature for patients with 

positive lab results to self-identify, report test results, 

relevant demographic and clinical data (e.g., date of 

symptom onset), data facilitating connection with 

services needed to support 14-day self-quarantine period 

• Enable automatic integration of minimum data above 

from consenting patient with validated test result into the 

health department’s surveillance system or case 

management tool 

(e.g., safe housing, food, medicine), and best means of 

communication 

• Enable health departments or laboratories to 

authenticate self-reported test results 

Contact Elicitation / Identification 

Minimum

• Enable health department to perform manual data entry 

of contacts of patients reported during phone calls with 

patients 

• Enable health department to define different exposure 

risk levels used to identify contacts based on how close 

and how long their exposure was (e.g., within 6 feet of 

patient for 15 minutes or more) 

Preferred

• Provide electronic means for patients to securely selfreport contacts and their best means of communication • Enable automatic modification of exposure risk level 

based on self-reported protective behaviors (e.g., mask 

use), events (e.g., recovery from illness, vaccination) or 

mass gathering detected by multiple exposure alerts 

received in quick succession 

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Table 1 (continued). Minimum and preferred features of digital contact tracing tools, by contact tracing task 

For health departments that choose to use only case For health departments that choose to supplement contact 

management tools for contact tracing, the tools should: tracing with the use of voluntary, opt-in proximity or exposure 

notification tools, the tools should: 

Contact Notification 

Minimum 

• Allow customizable manual, anonymous, and automated 

notifications3 to elicited contacts in the following order 

of priority: recorded voice message, email, and text 

message 

• Enable messaging to be tailored to the likelihood of 

exposure, include links to health information resources 

and services to support 14-day self-quarantine period, 

and provide next steps (e.g., testing, self-quarantine) 

• Enable logging date and time of notification to be used 

in measurements of time between patient identification 

and contact notification 

• Enable anonymous4 automated notification to contacts 

who opt-in to being notified, while also preserving 

anonymity of patient 

• Enable notified contacts to voluntarily report relevant 

demographic data, data facilitating connection with 

supportive services, and best means of communication 

• Allow messaging to be tailored to the likelihood of 

exposure based on the risk level, include links to health 

information resources and services to support 14-day 

self-quarantine period, and provide next steps (e.g., 

testing, self-quarantine) 

Preferred 

• Integrate with telephone services to allow health 

department to call contacts using elicited information 

and log timestamp of call to be used in measurements 

of time between patient identification and contact 

notification 

• Fully automate enrollment of contacts into follow-up and 

monitoring module of health department information 

system/case management tool (upon contact consent), 

instruct contact on follow-up and monitoring process, and 

direct them to health department’s electronic platform for 

self-reporting 

Patient / Contact Follow up and Monitoring 

Minimum 

• Enable health department to perform manual data entry 

of daily symptom and temperature data reported during 

phone calls with patients and contacts, as well as data 

facilitating connection of patients and contacts with 

supportive services (including instructions for medical 

assistance) 

• Enable seamless restart of workflow upon confirmation 

of case status among any contact 

• Enable automated dispatch of reminders to elicited 

contacts for 14 days and provides link to platform to 

electronically self-report symptoms, temperature, and 

other information facilitating the connection with 

supportive services (if not supported by the health 

department’s case management tool) 

Preferred 

• Enable automated dispatch of reminders to elicited 

contacts for 14 days and provides link to platform to 

electronically self-report symptoms, temperature, and 

other information facilitating the connection with 

supportive services 

• Enable automated analytics of patient and contact 

check-in logs and notifies health department personnel 

of patients and contacts who have missed daily checkins 

• Enable automatic prioritization and classification of selfreported symptom and temperature data, immediate 

contact notification to suggest testing, and immediate 

health department notification to provide support to the 

contact (if not supported by the health department’s case 

management tool) 

• Be able to receive authentication of patient 

convalescence from health department to clear case 

status 

• Enable automatic prioritization and classification of selfreported symptom and temperature data, immediate 

contact notification to suggest testing, and immediate 

health department notification to provide support to the 

contact 

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Table 2. Minimum and preferred features of digital contact tracing tools, by crosscutting theme 

For health departments that choose to use only case 

management tools for contact tracing, the tools should: 

For health departments that choose to supplement contact 

tracing with the use of voluntary, opt-in proximity or exposure 

notification tools, the tools should: 

Personal Privacy and Data Security 

Minimum 

• Require consent of both patient and contact before 

collection and use of personally identifying information 

(PII) 

• Transparently inform patients and contacts of which 

data is collected, how it is used, and how long it will be 

retained 

• Authorize data access on a need-to-know basis for 

health department personnel 

• Use secure means of data transfer for any information 

that is shared between information systems within and 

between jurisdictions 

• Encrypt patient and contact data in transit and at rest 

Additionally, tools providing patients and/or contacts an 

electronic option for voluntarily self-reporting test results, 

symptoms, temperature, and other sensitive health data 

should: 

• Implement measures to prevent introduction of false 

data 

• Enable patients and contacts to opt-out of daily checkins 

• Require user consent before their data is shared with 

health department and contact notifications are initiated 

• Require that sharing location data, proximity data, or 

sensitive health data with a health department is not 

necessary for the user to benefit from the tool’s exposure 

notification features 

• Allow user to revoke consent and delete the application 

from their device at any time 

• Require that data is encrypted and only stored locally on 

user’s device prior to voluntary sharing with health 

department 

• Require that any willingly shared user data stored on a 

central server is encrypted in transit and at rest, and only 

accessible by authorized health department personnel 

• Undergo independent security and privacy assessment 

that addresses issues of trustworthiness, security, and 

privacy, and publicly provide results 

• Include safeguards to prevent introduction of false data 

• Use programmatic means of secure data transfer for any 

information that is shared between tool and health 

department information systems 

Preferred 

• Use programmatic means of secure data transfer5 for 

any information that is shared between information 

systems within and between jurisdictions 

Additionally, tools providing patients and/or contacts an 

electronic option for voluntarily self-reporting test results, 

symptoms, temperature, and other sensitive health data 

should: 

• Automatically unsubscribe consenting patients and 

contacts from daily symptom and temperature 

monitoring after 14 days 

Localization 

Minimum 

• Provide self-reporting features in patient’s and 

contact’s language of choice and use plain language 

terms that can be easily understood 

• Provide user interfaces and all content therein in user’s 

language of choice and use plain language terms that can 

be easily understood 

Preferred 

• Provide voice messages, emails, text messages, and 

user interfaces shared with patient and contact in 

patient’s and contact’s language of choice and use 

plain language terms that can be easily understood 

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For health departments that choose to use only case 

management tools for contact tracing, the tools should: 

For health departments that choose to supplement contact 

tracing with the use of voluntary, opt-in proximity or exposure 

notification tools, the tools should: 

Workflow Management and Reporting 

Minimum 

• Use a structured, electronic means of assigning, 

tracking, and closing out patient and contact follow-up 

and monitoring activities that can integrate into 

reporting workflows 

• Enable tagging of contacts by source (i.e., identified by 

patient or identified by proximity or exposure notification 

tool) 

Preferred 

• Possess configurable, robust reporting and analytics 

functionality (e.g., dashboards containing various 

configurable visual widgets) 

User Experience 

Minimum 

• Be easy to learn for both contact tracing workforce and 

IT system administrators 

• Be easily used within web browser on mobile and 

desktop environments 

• Be easy to learn for both contact tracing workforce and 

general public 

Preferred 

• Support offline data entry and caching across 

platforms 

• Support efficient response to cross-jurisdiction case 

and contact investigation by being interoperable with 

tools used by health departments in neighboring states 

• Be open source and interoperable with tools used by health 

departments in neighboring states 

Development, Operations, and Maintenance 

Minimum 

• Be easily scalable to accommodate increases in cases 

and contacts 

• Use open architectures and open standards 

• Be developed and supported by vendors that can 

provide initial setup and comprehensive, rapid technical 

support and tool customization 

• Provide cross-platform functionality (Android, and iOS, with 

reasonable backwards compatibility for older operating 

system versions) 

• Receive regular usability and feature updates as exposure 

risk levels are calibrated and use cases are refined 

Preferred 

• Be open source and provide cross-platform 

functionality (Android and iOS, with reasonable 

backwards compatibility for older operating system 

and web browser versions) 

• Be developed and supported by a vendor that has 

experience working in public health settings 

• Allow health department staff to perform some of their 

own customizations (e.g., adding new data elements, 

implementing data validation and business rules, 

developing reports) 

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1 Local, state, tribal, and territorial public health departments 

2 Health departments choosing to supplement traditional contact tracing with the use of proximity or exposure notification tools should still select 

case management tools that meet at least the minimum functionality for each contact tracing task. Proximity or exposure notifications do not need 

to meet the minimum or preferred functionality of the case management tools. 3 Health departments should consider prioritizing resource allocation to calling contacts or conducting in-person interviews as necessary; when 

personnel capacity is limited, the case management tool should employ automated messaging that incorporates rapport-building human elements 

(e.g., delivered in audio or video by trusted local or national health figure) 

4 For tools using geolocation-based proximity tracing, we recommend participatory sharing methods that require health departments to validate 

case status and protect the privacy of patients, contacts, and local businesses. For Bluetooth-enabled exposure notification tools, we recommend 

decentralized, bidirectionally anonymous methods. For an example of a protocol that employs this method, see the PACT protocol. 5 E.g., RESTful API transferring data over HTTPS or SSH 

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