Digital contact tracing technologies in epidemics: a rapid review

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Digital Health

Background:

• Reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission is a global priority, with contact tracing playing a key role.
• Digital tools offer potential to augment and accelerate manual contact tracing efforts.
• These tools can be categorized into outbreak response, proximity tracing, and symptom tracking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the benefits, harms, and acceptability of digital contact tracing solutions.
• To evaluate their effectiveness in identifying contacts of infectious disease cases.

Main Methods:

• A rapid review of literature from 2000 to May 2020 was conducted.
• Included study designs: RCTs, cohort studies, and modeling studies.
• Searched databases: CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register.

Main Results:

• Modeling studies provided low-certainty evidence of reduced secondary cases with digital contact tracing (18-26% reduction).
• Cohort studies offered very low-certainty evidence of digital tools identifying more contacts and reducing tracing time.
• Digital systems were faster and preferred in some settings, but faced challenges with costs and internet access.

Conclusions:

• The effectiveness of digital contact tracing solutions remains largely unproven due to limited real-world data.
• Further research is crucial to evaluate effectiveness, particularly in conjunction with manual systems.
• Equity implications, acceptability, and privacy concerns must be addressed in future studies.