SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Collective Health introduces Collective Go™, a product designed to help businesses and their workers reduce risk and navigate safer workforce reentry, with a measured and evidence-based approach.
Designed with guidance from in-house epidemiologists and developed by leveraging Collective Health's existing technology framework and award-winning digital tools, Collective Go will bring:
- An evidence-based, externally-reviewed occupational health protocol underpinning a testing process, tailored to address risks associated with specific job types and populations,
- A full ecosystem of clinically-validated or FDA EUA test options through a wide and growing network of certified lab partners,
- A simple, streamlined, and privacy-oriented app experience with symptom and exposure checking, test status monitoring, and certification of compliance with business workplace testing protocols,
- A HIPAA-compliant platform capable of securely receiving data from a variety of testing labs, with management tools to deliver insights on how the workforce is tracking towards successful risk reduction and reentry.
“Frequent, verifiable, and large-scale testing, coupled with continuous risk evaluation and contact tracing is the only way to help Americans get back to some sense of normalcy,” said Ali Diab, Co-founder and CEO of Collective Health. “Businesses currently don't have a clear path forward. They need a comprehensive solution, based on the latest science, to enable them to reopen with confidence. Collective Go will deliver high-quality testing options, provide support for workers navigating the testing process, and have the capability to receive and verify data from multiple testing and tracing sources. A comprehensive approach like this is what’s needed for businesses to understand and improve the safety of their workforces.”
Collective Go has the ability to evolve with the ever-changing landscape of risk reduction options, with the flexibility to broaden beyond its initial offering and expand to support contact tracing, after APIs are widely available, or immunization compliance.
“The COVID threat will persist, and as we gradually reopen the economy, the number of cases is likely to expand. This is a challenge that will be with us for a long time,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA Commissioner. “Current data suggests temperature and symptom screening alone aren’t enough to measurably reduce the risk of a workplace outbreak, and we need better tools to improve safety. Using protocolized testing and self-isolation when contagious patients are identified, tools such as Collective Go, could make it possible for businesses to meaningfully reduce risk in the workplace.”
Comprehensive protocol to perform risk assessment, screening, and testing of workers
The protocol underpinning Collective Go is one of the first in a new series of what researchers call “living systematic reviews.” The Collective Go protocol will serve as an evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and continuously-updated guideline to help businesses understand and minimize risk of coronavirus introduction in the workplace.
As part of the protocol, Collective Health developed a series of models with extensive third party review, which:
- Describe how standard measures—temperature checks, disinfection, physical distancing, and masks—help reduce risk, and
- Provide guidance about testing types, frequency, and for what populations, which will differ based on industry, environment, geography, and workforce makeup, roles, and responsibilities.
Given current testing accessibility and evidence on transmission, to effectively mitigate workplace risk and facilitate safer workforce reentry, businesses must involve a combination of improved access to certified testing, additional interventions such as masks, practice distancing, and evaluate support for workplace contact tracing efforts.
"Reopening is underway, but the path forward is unclear – particularly for businesses, because our economic recovery depends on getting back to work but also containing the pandemic,” said Dr. Mark McClellan, former CMS Administrator, FDA Commissioner, current Director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. “Businesses need new evidence-based capabilities to implement work and workplace modifications, appropriate testing, and most of all support for their employees in improving safety today and for the future, and I appreciate Collective Health’s commitment to meeting that critical need.”
The Collective Go protocol has been developed by Collective Health, with review from coronavirus modeling experts and infectious disease epidemiologists from leading academic and public health institutions.1
Collective Health has partnered with Color to begin offering an initial testing solution for front-line and essential workers, and which will build on Color's work with the City of San Francisco and other employers. For this partnership, Color implements the Collective Go protocols, supplies and provisions collection kits, supports onsite and distributed testing logistics, processes samples in their CLIA-certified lab network, and communicates results to patients and public health authorities.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Collective Health on this important effort. An evidence-based testing strategy will be critical in ensuring the safe return to work of the American workforce and a successful reopening of the economy,” said Othman Laraki, Color CEO. “A high access model with no burden on care teams will help businesses reduce their risk of infection as they reopen.”
Ecosystem of testing options
Collective Go will bring a variety of testing options to businesses. With an ecosystem of testing partners and the ability to receive data input from any lab, Collective Go offers businesses scalability and flexibility to adapt to the rapidly-evolving testing landscape, and adopt the testing type(s) most appropriate for their workforce.
Collective Go is designed to support and manage data from a wide-variety of sources, including:
- Community testing efforts, which are now scaling up,
- Tests ordered by health care providers and conducted at local labs such as hospitals or outpatient clinics, or national laboratories,
- Tests conducted by healthcare providers onsite at employer offices and processed by laboratory partners,
- Self-administered tests conducted at home or in the workplace
As part of Collective Go, Everlywell will work to bring its diagnostic COVID-19 PCR testing solution to U.S. businesses. Everlywell has helped half a million individuals access quality lab testing for a variety of medical conditions from home. Since the start of the pandemic, Everlywell has supplied hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and city governments across America with enough COVID-19 testing to help get tens of thousands of frontline healthcare workers and their patients tested for the virus.
Genalyte, known for offering real-time diagnostics with a decentralized lab model, plans to expand the reach of its new rapid COVID-19 serology test to businesses by partnering with Collective Go.
The Collective Go ecosystem will continue to expand to include more testing modalities, including at home and self-administered tests as they receive FDA Emergency Use Authorization and validation. Collective Go is anticipated to begin rolling out in June 2020.
About Collective Health
Collective Health simplifies employee healthcare with an integrated technology solution that makes healthcare work for everyone. With nearly a quarter of a million members and over 50 clients—including Driscoll’s, Pinterest, Red Bull, Restoration Hardware (RH), and more—Collective Health is reinventing the healthcare experience for forward-thinking organizations and their people across the U.S. The company has developed a range of population health management solutions, and partnered with innovative companies across care delivery and diagnostics to meet the most pressing healthcare challenges for employers today.
Collective Health is headquartered in San Francisco, CA with additional offices in Chicago, IL and Lehi, UT. Founded in 2013, Collective Health is backed by the SoftBank Vision Fund, DFJ Growth, PSP Investments, NEA, GV, Founders Fund, Maverick Ventures, Mubadala Ventures, Sun Life, and other leading investors and advisors, including Special Partner at NEA, Scott Gottlieb, M.D. Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. is also an advisor to Collective Health. For more information, visit https://www.collectivehealth.com.
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1 The protocol underpinning Collective Go was developed by Collective Health’s Sanjay Basu MD PhD, and co-authored by Rajaie Batniji MD DPhil, with peer review from modeling experts and infectious disease epidemiologists, including: Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo MD PhD, University of California San Francisco, Elizabeth Chin MS, Stanford University, Ben Huynh MS, Stanford University, Nathan Lo MD PhD, University of California San Francisco, Mark McClellan MD PhD, Duke University, Matthew Murrill MD PhD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, George Rutherford MD, University of California San Francisco, and Lisa Winston MD, University of California San Francisco. The underlying models utilized in the model have been submitted to academic journals and are currently undergoing peer review.
