---
id: "coronavirus-smarter-crowdsourcing:strategies/Move-towards-a-centralized-communicable-and-report"
type: "GovLab policy strategy"
title: "Move towards a centralized communicable and reportable disease database and contact tracing capability."
url: "https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/strategies/move-towards-a-centralized-communicable-and-report"
summary: "Move towards a centralized communicable and reportable disease database and contact tracing capability. Governments should begin to invest in a federally centralized communicable and reportable disease database that will include contact tracing capabilities."
source: "The GovLab (coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org)"
licence: "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)"
---

# Move towards a centralized communicable and reportable disease database and contact tracing capability.

Move towards a centralized communicable and reportable disease database and contact tracing capability. Governments should begin to invest in a federally centralized communicable and reportable disease database that will include contact tracing capabilities.

- Timeframe: 6-12 Months (long)
- Audience: Private Sector, Academia, Healthcare Providers, Government Workers
- Type: Research, Data, Technology/Innovation, Communications, Partnerships, Capacity Building
- Recommendation: [Interjurisdictional Coordination](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/recommendations/interjurisdictional-coordination)
- Part of: [Smarter Crowdsourcing in the Age of Coronavirus](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/)

## Actions governments should take

1. Identify an organization that should be the administrator of this service, ideally a nationally established center for disease control and prevention (e.g. [US CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/), [Korean CDC](https://www.cdc.go.kr/cdc_eng/), National Institutes of Public Health etc.)
2. Survey existing state or regional databases for opportunities to integrate and merge records.
3. Conduct extensive research to identify and procure the optimal contact tracing platform that can be offered to all jurisdictions within the country.
4. [Develop training program for database and contact tracing platform with options to localize training modules. (see localization)](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZZEMqf6j1caIcjxHFZLkxxc5p_ECRB_Va6s2zOxWaG4/edit#heading=h.a3f6xk3b5o32)

## Examples from around the world

1. [States of the European Union have agreed on common specifications and data sharing protocol to ensure that contact tracing apps from different countries can communicate. This ensures that as people travel within the Schengen area, the contact tracing app they use will communicate with others.](https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/ehealth/docs/modelling_mobilitydata_en.pdf)