SAN FRANCISCO, March 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zignal Labs, creator of impact intelligence solutions that monitor the real-time evolution of opinion, and public health nonprofit PGP (The Public Good Projects), experts in health communications, today announced the launch of Project RCAID (Rapid Collection Analysis Interpretation Dissemination). RCAID is an innovative insights service that combines artificial intelligence, machine learning and expert analysis to monitor the conversation around COVID-19 (coronavirus). Scanning traditional, social and broadcast media, and analyzed through the lens of public health experts, RCAID captures emerging themes in real time, and provides daily, customized recommendations for professionals on the front lines of what the World Health Organization has called an infodemic.

Public and private health institutions must be able to respond urgently and knowledgeably to mitigate the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the world’s population. Traditional media monitoring and historical reporting do not provide the agility needed to manage the volume and velocity of news. While orchestrated information campaigns and response plans are being mobilized in real time, the speed of information traveling through the general population - across traditional and social media - has made it challenging for organizations to effectively monitor and manage evolving conversations around the virus.

“Global experts dealing with COVID-19 aren’t just grappling with treating the sick and developing a vaccine - they must urgently provide the public with the most accurate and current health information,” said Adam Beaugh, CEO and co-founder of Zignal Labs. “Government agencies, healthcare institutions, pharmaceutical manufacturers and health insurers all must meet the challenge of an unprecedented spread of misinformation and disinformation as they educate the public on safe and effective strategies to minimize risk and stay healthy. Analyzing the conversational data around COVID-19 can unlock new insights and identify new methods to reach people with information that may save their lives.”

RCAID is one of the many ways Zignal Labs is supporting its customers during this unprecedented public health crisis. To allow all customers to better understand and react to the infodemic across their organizations, Zignal Labs is providing each of its customers with complimentary access to a dedicated real-time COVID-19 dashboard. This dashboard profile offers tracking and monitoring of the conversation around COVID-19, with the option to customize the COVID-19 topics specific to their businesses. For those needing contextualized insights and public health expertise from PGP, the RCAID service empowers health professionals with a deeper understanding of online conversations to guide their strategic plans and response.

The RCAID solution offers customers:

• Real-time access to global and multi-language data from publicly available media channels (broadcast, news, social media, blogs, online video, etc.)
• Analytics to gauge which stories, influencers, outlets, words, geographies and topics are gaining the most traction, and how they are trending over time
• Access to dedicated public health practitioners, whose recommendations follow crisis response standards (e.g. CDC’s CERC framework)
• Ability to look at levels of automation to help determine where COVID-19 narratives are being propagated in inauthentic ways, or where disinformation may be a factor
• Customized topics and geographies for each team’s needs
• Daily insights available by phone, email, automated email alerts, text alerts, custom dashboards and downloadable reports

“Information, which spreads as fast as disease, can make a crisis better or worse. Modern public health emergencies require modern mitigation techniques, and these need to be linked to best practices in crisis and emergency risk communications,” said Dr. Joe Smyser, CEO of The Public Good Projects. “RCAID enables public and private healthcare organizations to understand the impact of the information they are sharing, and craft communications plans tailored to their specific needs. As we progress through the phases of this pandemic, RCAID will evolve as well.”

To access customized, daily insights on media conversations related to COVID-19 and coronavirus through RCAID, please visit www.RCAID.org.

To learn more about Zignal Labs, please visit https://zignallabs.com/.

To learn more about PGP, please visit https://publicgoodprojects.org/

About Zignal Labs
Zignal’s Impact Intelligence platform measures the real-time evolution of opinion, and identifies the topics, networks and people that can shape it. Using AI and machine learning, Zignal mines social, traditional and broadcast media for signals of changing beliefs. With Impact Intelligence, marketers, communicators and insights professionals drive more powerful campaigns, products and experiences, and risk analysts identify threats before they fully emerge. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York City and Washington D.C., Zignal serves customers around the world, including Expedia, DaVita, Under Armour, Synchrony, Prudential, DTE Energy, The Public Good Projects and Uber. To learn more, visit: www.zignallabs.com.

About PGP
PGP (The Public Good Projects) is a public health nonprofit composed of experts in public health, media, and marketing. PGP’s mission is to apply best evidence and practices from the public and private sectors to design and implement bold projects for health. PGP’s programs and initiatives are evidence-based, tailored for particular populations, employ a collective impact model, and are scientifically evaluated. To learn more, visit: https://publicgoodprojects.org/