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Coronavirus

Meet the Local Company Helping New York Track COVID-19

MTX Group is working with New York and 16 other states to help track and end the pandemic.
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Frisco-based digital transformation services company MTX Group is working with government health departments across the country to help them identify at-risk individuals for COVID-19 and prevent future spread. 

MTX’s software maps out clusters of the disease and guides overburdened health departments as they track contacts and communicate with those who may have been exposed. The technology can also predict movement of the outbreak based on who has been identified so far, helping states and municipalities be better prepared. 

MTX built a solution that allows people to self register to enroll in screening and monitoring activities, which can also provide a paperless QR code when accessing testing sites, says CEO and founder Das Nobel.

As test results come back, the departments of health utilize MTX’s technology to notify residents of negative test results via text message, which can be 5,000-10,000 notifications at a time, depending on testing capabilities. That frees up health department resources to make contact with positive cases, which usually involve a phone call and a more intensive interaction about isolation and contact tracing.

The notification system engages contacts of the positive cases, capturing data about potential symptoms if they develop. If a contact responds that they are developing symptoms, they get a number of follow up questions and possibly a phone call to determine next steps. The program is built with health experts, who use the text interactions to keep people out of the hospital unless they absolutely need to be there. Nobel says engagement has been high, and most people are answering the texts and providing symptom reports. 

The massive amounts of data allows health departments and providers to learn more about how the disease is spreading, giving them information certain ZIP codes with clusters of new cases so that they can make preparations. “It helps the government agency partner work with providers to plan for worst case scenario,” Nobel says. “We also built a model to track the inventory of hospital equipment.”

Nobel says the quick turnaround and success in New York, where the company used to be based, has helped attract other public health entities to employ their solution. The company is also looking ahead, and thinks this disease will be around for at least two years. He said they are working on moving beyond the quarantine interaction and into COVID-19 recovery solutions as well. 

Texas has yet to adopt the technology, but MTX is in conversation with officials to see if they can work together. The system can also be applied to other diseases, natural disaster response, or other health emergencies like the opioid crisis that need efficient scalable communication between all the entities involved. “It will build greater coordination between clinics, pharmacies, and departments of health to exchange data and take inventory of equipment,” Nobel says.

As health systems are bogged down in the addressing the crisis on the ground, MTX can look ahead to the next month and help determine next steps. “What are the agencies not thinking and not looking at in three-four weeks?” Nobel says. “They recognize that our guys are out front.”

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