DataRobot is excited to be awarded the 2021 ACT-IAC Innovation Award for ContagionNET, our pioneering rapid antigen test for COVID-19 that is at the forefront of pandemic preparedness and response.  

At the beginning of the pandemic, DataRobot committed to fighting against COVID-19 from a data science perspective. As part of these efforts, we built accurate predictive models to determine the spread of the disease weeks and months in advance of a surge.  We also worked with federal partners to understand hospital capacity and test reporting inaccuracies and helped reopen K-12 schools in Pennsylvania and Washington state. 

Our work highlighted two essential needs when it comes to fighting COVID-19 effectively: 

1. Access to frequent, affordable testing
2. Accurate reporting at the most granular level possible within different geographies

ContagionNET was born out of the need to address these challenges.

With ContagionNET, DataRobot developed a tech-infused, minimally invasive, low-cost rapid antigen test combined with an AI-driven platform to ensure accurate reporting. The antigen tests necessitates result reporting and prevents result duplication. It was designed to be “variant proof” so that we can ensure it works as the virus evolves, and it gives a semi-quantifiable measurement of how contagious an individual user is so you can give specific advice on their risk of transmission. The AI-driven platform tracks both a user’s contagiousness over time and spreads in their community. Results can be reported to local, state, and federal health authorities at the zip code level to ensure transparency and accuracy, as well as helping them to respond proactively to outbreaks and move resources to where they are most needed.

COVID-19 is unlikely to be the last pandemic of our lifetime. More biological threats are emerging, and we can’t lose another year to an infectious disease. ContagionNET is easy to produce, rapidly scalable, and seamlessly blends AI with low-tech solutions to understand and predict where disease will occur so we can take action to prevent the spread. ContagionNET is the future for pandemic preparedness and response, and we are excited that we were able to develop it to put our enterprise AI platform to use in fighting  the world’s biggest challenges.

Find out more at contagion.net 

About the author

Sally Embrey

VP of Public Health and Health Technologies

Sally Embrey is the VP of Public Health and Medical Technologies at DataRobot. Sally’s career has been focused on the intersection of public health, technology, and innovation with advanced degrees in epidemiology, environmental and occupational health, and environmental engineering. She is a former CDC researcher and has led numerous research initiatives, including the development of clinical trials and international and US-based emergency preparedness and response.

Meet Sally Embrey