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  • How an Alberta text messaging program is helping people cope with COVID-19

    An Alberta Health Services’ text messaging service called Text4Hope is giving people text messages to help them cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The texts, written by mental health therapists, use cognitive behavioral therapy, helping people disrupt the constant stream of negative thoughts that happen during traumatic times. So far, over 30,000 people have signed up.

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  • Israeli Phone Apps Aim to Track Coronavirus, Guard Privacy

    The use of mobile phone technology can aid in contact tracing and the collection of public health data. In Israel, the government’s use of GPS phone locations to trace cases of COVID-19 raised scrutiny regarding privacy and accountability. Instead, a newer, open-source app called Hamagen invites users to download and voluntarily participate in contact tracing. Other measures put in place to safeguard personal privacy concerns include parliamentary oversight of governmental tracing programs.

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  • Text-to-911 Saves Lives, but Data Suggests It Remains Rare

    Significant growth in the availability of text-to-911 technology has meant greater safety for people whose speaking ability or dangerous surroundings prevent them from making voice calls to 911. Various states have used different methods to enable the spread of such services, with no one-size-fits-all approach. Federal data show the number of emergency texts grew from about 1,000 in 2014 to more than 188,000 in 2018. While data are incomplete, a majority of the U.S. evidently remains outside areas with 911 call centers that can receive text messages.

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  • At this COVID-19 test center, you're not just a number

    The University of North Carolina's healthcare system is utilizing virtual care centers and mobile communications to more efficiently prioritize potential COVID-19 cases and better track people after they've been tested. After someone has been tested, virtual communication continues whether or not they tested positive for the virus, which has helped mitigate concerns for patients about how to best manage the symptoms they're experiencing, regardless of the diagnosis.

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  • My Friend Died of COVID-19 and I'm Learning How to Grieve in Isolation

    Cell phones are being used as a new tool during the coronavirus pandemic to help people who have lost loved ones to process and cope with their grief. Although mobile therapy platforms and online counseling options have their limitations, counselors still say that, "being online and making sure to connect, even virtually, is crucial for helping people learn how to grieve and recover."

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  • ‘Dial-A-Priest': Episcopal Clergy Offering Final Prayers Remotely

    Connecting to a priest—by video or telephone—can offer relief to those dying alone. The Virginia Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, recently launched Dial-A-Priest, a service that allows patients to pray with Episcopal priests. The hotline connects callers to a network of priests on duty to offer final prayer services, 24-hours a day.

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  • Governments are using cellphone location data to manage the coronavirus

    Governments across the world are using data from cell phones to better track the movement of those under quarantine restrictions during coronavirus. While each country using this containment strategy is implementing it in different ways, the information shared is kept anonymous but, in some cases, grants the greater public access to movements of individuals to know where possible contagions may have occurred.

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  • Elections amid coronavirus: How officials aim to keep voters safe

    Many are looking to in-person voting alternatives already used on smaller scales to address the challenges of holding an election during the Covid-19 pandemic. Online or mobile app voting is allowed on a limited basis in several states. Voatz is a mobile voting app that has been used in 50 elections since 2016, with more than 80,000 votes cast. The company uses blockchain to encrypt the data and has offered to discuss the free use of its software for the 2020 presidential election. Experts caution the possibility of cyber-attacks as well as the difficulty of widely implementing new technologies so quickly.

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  • South Korea Shows World How to Slow Spread of Coronavirus

    South Korea has taken a softer approach to preventing and containing the coronavirus, in large part because they’ve prioritized accessible testing and have an already-existing strong and affordable healthcare system. Beyond that, the government has centered on citizen education – sending daily updates about new cases and provided a hotline for questions and concerns.

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  • Map the Vote app finds unregistered voters in cities and helps get them to the polls

    Register2Vote (R2V) identified unregistered voters in Texas and built a platform for them to fill out the form online, which R2V printed and mailed to them with a stamped envelope addressed to their county’s registrar’s office. 112,000 of the 156,000 new voters they registered voted in 2018. R2V later created Map the Vote, a nationwide crowdsourced app that maps where unregistered voters live. It also provides tools to help organizations, or even neighbors, register new voters, including scripts that people can use to start a conversation about registering to vote and respond to common voting concerns.

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