Amid the horrific public health and economic fallout from a fast-moving pandemic, a more positive phenomenon is playing out: COVID-19 has provided opportunities to businesses, universities and communities to become hothouses of innovation.
Around the world, digital technologies are driving high-impact interventions. Community and public health leaders are handling time-sensitive tasks and meeting pressing needs with technologies that are affordable and inclusive, and don't require much technical knowledge.
Our research reveals the outsized impact of inexpensive, readily available digital technologies. In the midst of a maelstrom, these technologies among them social media, mobile apps, analytics and cloud computing help communities cope with the pandemic and learn crucial lessons.
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To gauge how this potential is playing out, our research team looked at how communities incorporate readily available digital technologies in their responses to disasters.
