Over the primary three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US suffered over twice the deaths per capita as Canada — over 600,000 potentially avoidable deaths. Consultants agree that this was a hard-won victory of Canada’s public well being response. Whereas political and demographic realities have been a significant component, an unsung hero is the information modernization efforts that helped Canada observe and comprise the sudden rise in infections and meet the demand for public well being companies.
With regards to public well being emergencies, Canadian authorities have lengthy been dedicated to studying from crises, making use of expertise and reworking techniques to place each state and federal businesses for achievement when the subsequent problem arrives. Even inside imperfect political realities, public well being organizations world wide can study and emulate Canada’s response by knowledge modernization, doubtlessly saving hundreds of thousands of lives within the subsequent public well being emergency.
A proactive strategy to the specter of a world well being disaster
After the SARS outbreak in 2003, federal and provincial governments in Canada acknowledged that their present public well being techniques and IT have been insufficient. Canadian authorities proactively labored with IBM to develop an answer referred to as IBM Panorama, an end-to-end public well being illness surveillance and immunization system. This resolution would later be key to Canadian public well being businesses’ response to COVID-19.
In the meantime, throughout the US, public well being officers continued to make use of paper-based techniques that may later fail to maintain up with the explosive unfold of COVID-19.
Within the years following the SARS outbreak, the enterprise of public well being largely returned to steady-state focus. The day-to-day actions of public well being businesses consisted primarily of coping with conventional vaccines, illnesses and situations.
Throughout this era, Panorama helped Canadian authorities cope with a variety of public well being capabilities, together with case investigation and outbreak administration, in addition to immunization and vaccine inventory management.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, well being businesses have been instantly thrown into the highlight. All of a sudden, public well being businesses needed to cope with:
- A novel illness for which no requirements (similar to case definitions) existed
- A quickly evolving illness the place variants, indicators and signs, and interventions modified rapidly
- Excessive case volumes and in depth contact tracing, which necessitated employment of latest public well being employees to satisfy demand (with restricted coaching obtainable)
- New vaccines and evolving protocols, similar to mixing and matching doses with completely different vaccines
- The necessity to talk well being dangers to the general public primarily based on quickly growing knowledge and unsure interpretations
Although each the US and Canada confronted unprecedented challenges throughout this time, the Canadian provinces that have been outfitted with Panorama have been higher ready to answer the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast to many US counterparts, that they had a strong enterprise-grade resolution that was particularly designed for public well being. This resolution had the aptitude to handle massive scale immunization occasions and illness surveillance.
Given international journey and local weather change, it’s cheap to anticipate that one other pandemic (and the issues listed above) may very well be proper across the nook.
This time, the US can study from the experiences and preparedness of Canada’s public well being businesses. A profitable public well being response to a future pandemic will depend on amassing and managing vital knowledge, investing in good, succesful and versatile knowledge modernization techniques, and getting ready folks with the right data and expertise.
Lesson 1: Use an information mannequin constructed for public well being.
Canadian provinces used a illness surveillance resolution that includes a person-centered public well being knowledge mannequin, which meant it captured the requisite data wanted for public well being professionals to forecast and determine rising traits and outbreaks (in addition to analyze interventions and report back to stakeholders). US public well being businesses would profit from selecting illness surveillance options that include a confirmed, public well being knowledge mannequin that provides related terminology, relationships and fashions.
Lesson 2: Make key selections with high-quality knowledge.
Excessive-quality knowledge is the bedrock of any public well being response. US public well being businesses ought to search options that ingest knowledge in a number of codecs and have built-in processes for knowledge cleaning to take care of the integrity of information. Knowledge silos usually happen when knowledge isn’t shared or accessible, resulting in workarounds and incomplete data. It’s essential to determine knowledge sharing agreements upfront of an emergency.
Lesson 3: Deal with knowledge volumes with system integration.
Each Canadian and US public well being businesses have been overwhelmed by enormous volumes of information through the COVID-19 pandemic. US businesses invested emergency COVID-19 funding into new case administration and phone coaching options. Nonetheless, these have been usually stand-alone options that didn’t handle the underlying problems with siloed, incomplete or duplicative knowledge.
Canada used built-in public well being data techniques, like Panorama, for seamless knowledge ingestion, cleaning and import processing. By means of techniques integration by way of open APIs and different technique of integrating knowledge into affected person well being data, this served as the only supply of fact for all publicity, case investigation, contact tracing, outbreak administration and case administration data for every resident.
Lesson 4: Undertake a cloud-native structure to make sure elastic scalability.
Most of the investments in new expertise options from the COVID-19 pandemic are actually being sundown. For sustainable investments, public well being businesses want the power to scale knowledge and data techniques to the information volumes skilled throughout steady-state operations in addition to throughout emergency responses. Investing in a cloud-native resolution gives a versatile structure and a future-proof resolution that permits the general public well being company to have elastic scalability.
Lesson 5: Prioritize agile configurability to adapt to growing illness situations.
Canadian public well being businesses benefited from IBM Panorama’s capability to serve all 100+ reportable illnesses and situations. When the novel coronavirus began to emerge from lab exams, indicators and signs led epidemiologists to code this knowledge in a parking zone inside Panorama, till LOINC and SNOWMED formally coded COVID-19. This type of configurability is important to adapt to rising illnesses and situations, as a substitute of techniques that solely serve single illnesses and situations.
Lesson 6: Empower finish customers to reply quickly with a simple, customizable system.
The general public well being subject has skilled a big turnover as folks retire or expertise burnout. Knowledge modernization initiatives afford public well being businesses the chance to draw new expertise by providing options utilizing human-centered design. These options use augmented intelligence, guided workflows, machine studying and even take into account generative AI to embed area experience inside workflows and advance the effectivity and coaching of latest customers.
Lesson 7: Use storytelling to interact stakeholders and the general public.
Whereas epidemiologists are outfitted to report and analyze knowledge and talk it to different scientists, accessible storytelling is essential to fostering better belief and impression when translating science into public communications and public coverage. In Canada, there are “knowledge storytelling” trainings for public well being professionals that empower public well being data officers and state well being officers to border knowledge insights to maximise public understanding and motion.
Create a proactive knowledge modernization plan to organize for the surprising
COVID-19 revealed alternatives to vary the way in which public well being is managed, in addition to the necessity to spend money on expertise. With the CDC Knowledge Modernization Initiative and Public Health Infrastructure Grants, now’s the time for US public well being businesses to study from fellow public well being businesses, like these in Canada, as they modernize.
By taking a proactive knowledge modernization strategy, US public well being businesses can handle steady-state operations and be higher ready to answer the unknowns of the subsequent public well being emergency.
Incorporate these lessons into your data modernization journey
