The Atlantic Coast Conference announced today that it will equip student-athletes, coaches and Tier 1 personnel at the ACC men’s and women’s basketball tournaments with a KINEXON SafeTag contact tracing device.

The devices, which have been utilized by all 15 ACC member institutions throughout the regular season, are a component of KINEXON SafeZone, a cutting-edge digital solution to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This season, all ACC men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes, coaches, and staff wore the devices while inside team facilities. Student-athletes also had the SafeTags sewn into jerseys or tucked into socks for in-game usage.

The SafeTags measure the proximity between users to provide school medical officials accurate contact tracing data when an individual tests positive for the virus. To date, the technology has identified several high-risk close contacts of a positive case within the ACC. These high-risk contacts were quarantined and later tested positive, thus limiting the spread of the virus. 

“Having all of our teams use the KINEXON technology throughout the regular-season proved to be significantly effective in the continued efforts to keep our student-athletes, coaches and programs healthy and safe,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips.

“As we approach the ACC Tournaments, we’re pleased to expand the partnership with KINEXON and feel it will only enhance our protocols.” Prior to the pandemic, KINEXON established itself as a world-leader in sports performance technology and analytics. When the sporting world shut down in March of 2020, the company pivoted its award-winning technology to address the challenge of mitigating the spread of the virus. Instead of tracking movement, the SafeTags measure the distance and duration of a contact and cannot track a person’s physical location to ensure user privacy.

To date, KINEXON SafeZone has been used to help several professional sports leagues around the world safely complete seasons amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. “While it is impossible to completely reduce the risk of exposure to the virus to zero, KINEXON SafeZone has proven that it is the most effective solution at minimizing the possibility of large outbreaks,” said KINEXON Executive Vice President Jim Garofalo.

“By expanding the use of this technology to its conference tournaments, the ACC is making another strong commitment not only to the health and safety of its men’s and women’s basketball programs, but also to the community at large.” Recently, IQVIA epidemiologist and University of North Carolina faculty Dr. Christina Mack published a scientific paper in partnership with the  NFL, NFLPA and CDC showing effectiveness of the NFL 2020 Season COVID-19 protocols and explaining the role of KINEXON within contact tracing processes. 

“Effective contact tracing is one of the best tools we have to prevent transmission” said Dr. Christina Mack. “The KINEXON device provides a key starting point to understand interactions between individuals, and assess risk of transmission. Evaluation of KINEXON data can also help communities improve protocols and reduce close interactions to prevent transmission when a case occurs”

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@UofLSheriff50. Louisville native, University of Louisville Business School Grad c/o 2004. Co-Founder of TheCrunchZone.com

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