Data-enabled responses to pandemics: policy lessons from COVID-19

Dhami, Sangeeta; Thompson, Deidre; Akoum, Maha El; Bates, David W.; Bertollini, Roberto; Sheikh, Aziz

doi:10.1038/s41591-022-02054-0

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The database also played a vital role in identifying disparities among regions and in assessing vaccine safety and effectiveness. [ 46 , 64 ]…”

Section: Rapid Responses Not Related To Vaccinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Israeli health system’s rapid responses during the COVID-19 pandemic

Rosen,

Hartal,

Waitzberg

2024

Isr J Health Policy Res

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Background The COVID-19 pandemic posed numerous challenges to health systems around the world. In addressing many of those challenges, Israel responded quite rapidly. While quick action is not an end in it itself, it can be important in responding to disease outbreaks. Some of Israel's rapid responses to the pandemic contributed significantly to population health and provided important learning opportunities for other countries. Main body Some of the most prominent Israeli rapid responses were related to vaccination. Israel led the world in the pace of its initial vaccine rollout, and it was also the first country to approve and administer booster vaccines to broad segments of the population. In addition, Israeli scholars published a series of timely reports analyzing vaccination impact, which informed policy in Israel and other countries. Israel was a rapid responder in additional areas of public health. These include the partial closure of its borders, the adoption of physical distancing measures, the use of digital surveillance technology for contact tracing, the use of wastewater surveillance to monitor viral spread, and the use of vaccine certificates ("green passes") to facilitate a return to routine in the face of the ongoing pandemic. Many factors contributed to Israel's capacity to repeatedly respond rapidly to a broad array of COVID-19 challenges. These include a national health insurance system that promotes public–private coordination, a system of universal electronic health records, a high level of emergency preparedness, a culture of focusing on goal attainment, a culture of innovation, and the presence of a strong scientific community which is highly connected internationally. In addition, some of the rapid responses (e.g., the rapid initial vaccination rollout) facilitated rapid responses in related areas (e.g., the analysis of vaccination impact, the administration of boosters, and the adoption of green passes). While rapid response can contribute to population health and economic resilience, it can also entail costs, risks, and limitations. These include making decisions and acting before all the relevant information is available; deciding without sufficient consideration of the full range of possible effects, costs, and benefits; not providing enough opportunities for the involvement of relevant groups in the decision-making process; and depleting non-renewable resources. Conclusions Based on our findings, we encourage leaders in the Israeli government to ensure that its emergency response system will continue to have the capacity to respond rapidly to large-scale challenges, whether of a military or civilian nature. At the same time, the emergency response systems should develop mechanisms to include more stakeholders in the fast-paced decision-making process and should improve communication with the public. In addition, they should put into place mechanisms for timely reconsideration, adjustment, and—when warranted—reversal of decisions which, while reasonable when reached, turn out to have been ill-advised in the light of subsequent developments and evidence. These mechanisms could potentially involve any or all branches of government, as well as the public, the press, and professional organizations. Our findings also have implications for health system leaders in other countries. The Israeli experience can help them identify key capacities to develop during non-emergency periods, thus positioning themselves to respond more rapidly in an emergency. Finally, health system leaders in other countries could monitor Israel's rapid responses to future global health emergencies and adopt selected actions in their own countries.

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“…The database also played a vital role in identifying disparities among regions and in assessing vaccine safety and effectiveness. [ 46 , 64 ]…”

Section: Rapid Responses Not Related To Vaccinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Israeli health system’s rapid responses during the COVID-19 pandemic

Rosen,

Hartal,

Waitzberg

2024

Isr J Health Policy Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This empowered a task force to analyse diverse sources including COVID-19 test results, mobile device geolocation and hospital respiratory illness diagnosis tracking to provide remarkably powerful contact tracing and surveillance. Other countries that had rapid success deriving important insights from national data sharing during the worst of the pandemic were Scotland, Iceland, Israel and Qatar 31…”

Section: Sharing Data Wisely Builds Trust and Supports Learning Healt...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other countries that had rapid success deriving important insights from national data sharing during the worst of the pandemic were Scotland, Iceland, Israel and Qatar. 31 …”

Section: Sharing Data Wisely Builds Trust and Supports Learning Healt...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital health and care: emerging from pandemic times

Peek,

Sujan,

Scott

2023

BMJ Health Care Inform

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In 2020, we published an editorial about the massive disruption of health and care services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid changes in digital service delivery, artificial intelligence and data sharing that were taking place at the time. Now, 3 years later, we describe how these developments have progressed since, reflect on lessons learnt and consider key challenges and opportunities ahead by reviewing significant developments reported in the literature. As before, the three key areas we consider are digital transformation of services, realising the potential of artificial intelligence and wise data sharing to facilitate learning health systems. We conclude that the field of digital health has rapidly matured during the pandemic, but there are still major sociotechnical, evaluation and trust challenges in the development and deployment of new digital services.

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“…Initial policy responses entailed stricter measures, such as restrictions on gatherings, stay-at-home requirements, and travel restrictions [ 89 , 90 , 91 ]. Following the vaccine development, with the increase in worldwide vaccinations, policies have changed and become endemic [ 92 , 93 , 94 ]. However, there were indications that COVID-19 might break out again in late 2022, so constant care and attention are needed.…”

Section: Advanced Utilization Of Covid-19 Databasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic Guidelines for Effective Utilization of COVID-19 Databases in Genomic, Epidemiologic, and Clinical Research

Seong

Park

et al. 2023

Viruses

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The pandemic has led to the production and accumulation of various types of data related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). To understand the features and characteristics of COVID-19 data, we summarized representative databases and determined the data types, purpose, and utilization details of each database. In addition, we categorized COVID-19 associated databases into epidemiological data, genome and protein data, and drug and target data. We found that the data present in each of these databases have nine separate purposes (clade/variant/lineage, genome browser, protein structure, epidemiological data, visualization, data analysis tool, treatment, literature, and immunity) according to the types of data. Utilizing the databases we investigated, we created four queries as integrative analysis methods that aimed to answer important scientific questions related to COVID-19. Our queries can make effective use of multiple databases to produce valuable results that can reveal novel findings through comprehensive analysis. This allows clinical researchers, epidemiologists, and clinicians to have easy access to COVID-19 data without requiring expert knowledge in computing or data science. We expect that users will be able to reference our examples to construct their own integrative analysis methods, which will act as a basis for further scientific inquiry and data searching.

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Data-enabled responses to pandemics: policy lessons from COVID-19

Cited by 7 publications

References 14 publications

The Israeli health system’s rapid responses during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Israeli health system’s rapid responses during the COVID-19 pandemic

Digital health and care: emerging from pandemic times

Systematic Guidelines for Effective Utilization of COVID-19 Databases in Genomic, Epidemiologic, and Clinical Research

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