(P142) DREAMING BIG: ADVANCING STD/HIV DISEASE INVESTIGATION USING CALIFORNIA CONFIDENTIAL NETWORK FOR CONTACT TRACING (CALCONNECT)

Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic response brought a wave of technological advances for public health. In 2020, California Department of Public Health (CDPH) developed CalCONNECT (California Confidential Network for Contact Tracing), a Salesforce-based platform developed to support case investigation and contact tracing activities with modernized features at the scale necessary for COVID-19.

Methods:
In September 2023, CDPH announced expansion of CalCONNECT to include integrated STD/HIV Case and Contact Investigation Records.  The CDPH Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Branch (STDCB) and Office of AIDS (OA) are actively collaborating to leverage CalCONNECT functionality and develop a case management and partner services module that will significantly improve STD/HIV disease investigation outreach capabilities, workflow efficiency, outbreak management and real-time data accessibility.

Results:
Key CalCONNECT functionality includes: SMS capabilities that can send one-way “informational” messages or two-way surveys to clients; integrated softphone with real-time access to translation services; custom list views that support rapid triage by aiding the identification and assignment of priority records (e.g., pregnant persons diagnosed with syphilis and infants; persons co-infected with syphilis and HIV; persons out-of-care for HIV); integration with statewide vaccine registries; ability to create investigation teams and make within-system referrals to improve patient care coordination (e.g., HIV care/PrEP or Doxy PEP navigators; prenatal/maternal care coordinators); tools to support cluster/outbreak management at the LHJ-level or within specific settings (e.g., schools; workplaces; households); and user-ability to create custom reports or dashboards reflecting real-time CalCONNECT data that support timely assessments of staff workload, disease investigation outcomes and epidemiological trends.

Conclusion:
CDPH will share key findings identified by overburdened public health staff as essential to improve the timeliness and reach of STD/HIV disease investigations and promote workflow efficiencies.  This information may help to inform other jurisdictions looking to implement state-of- the-art case management IT infrastructure. The anticipated minimum viable product roll-out for syphilis and HIV is Summer 2024.