About Sara Alert™

Sara Alert is a standards-based, open- source tool that automates the process of active symptom monitoring, enabling jurisdictions to use their resources more efficiently to conduct large-scale monitoring efforts. It was developed by public health experts for public health. As an open source tool, Sara Alert is available in the public domain for public and private use and is easily integrated into other tools.

Sara Alert enables public health officials to enroll individuals at risk of developing a disease of interest, for example COVID-19. Once enrolled, individuals can report their symptoms (and their household members’, if applicable) through multiple platforms (e.g., mobile, desktop, text-based, voice), providing public health departments improved situational awareness.

If an individual reports symptoms or does not submit a report, the record is flagged by the system so that public health can quickly and efficiently identify individuals requiring follow-up.

Sara Alert also enables public health officials to enroll cases who require monitoring to determine when it is safe to discontinue home isolation.

Once enrolled, individuals are sent a reminder to report their symptoms via text, email or phone, providing public health departments improved situational awareness.  If an individual report meets a recovery definition, or the individual does not submit a daily report, the record is flagged by the system so that public health can identify individuals requiring follow-up. The concept of operations and high-level workflow are shown below for COVID-19.

The Sara Alert system contains two parallel public health workflows that track two types of monitorees:

• Exposure monitoring workflow: allows public health to monitor potentially exposed individuals to determine if they become ill.
• Isolation monitoring workflow: allows public health to monitor cases daily to determine when they preliminarily meet the recovery definition and it may be safe to discontinue home isolation.