Public Health Authorities (PHAs) are facing their gravest crisis in a century. LF Public Health is a nonprofit that works with PHAs and their preferred IT vendors to use open source software to combat COVID-19 and future epidemics.
How LFPH Supports a PHA
The initial focus of LFPH is helping PHAs deploy an exposure notification app implementing the Google Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) APIs. LFPH will then expand its scope into software support for all phases of PHA’s testing, tracing, and isolation activities.
One of the roles of LFPH is to serve as a forum for collaboration between PHAs, developers, technology companies, and academics to ensure the implementation and dissemination of best practices, including privacy and security. We do this through our Implementer’s Forum.
Support Levels
- Few PHAs have sufficient personnel who are technically sophisticated in creating, deploying, and maintaining software, particularly when it is essential that the software be reliable, privacy-protecting, and secure.
- LFPH hosts the upstream versions of its software while enabling the PHA – working with its 1st line support – to maintain control of their customized apps and all of their data.
- This collaboration reduces the risk for PHAs to roll out new technologies while preserving their ability to customize and control the process.
Join LFPH
Like other Linux Foundation initiatives, LFPH is a membership organization that receives funding from technology and consulting companies that want to collaborate on open source development. PHAs, however, can join as no-fee associate members.