Electronic reporting of diagnostic laboratory test results from all healthcare sectors is a cornerstone of national preparedness and control of COVID‐19 in Denmark

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented demand for real‐time surveillance data in order to inform critical decision makers regarding the management of the pandemic. The aim of this review was to describe how the Danish national microbiology database, MiBa, served as a cornerstone for providing data to the real‐time surveillance system by linkage to other nationwide health registries. The surveillance system was established on an existing IT health infrastructure and a close network between clinical microbiologists, information technology experts, and public health officials. In 2020, testing capacity for SARS‐CoV‐2 was ramped up from none to over 10,000 weekly PCR tests per 100,000 population. The crude incidence data mirrored this increase in testing. Real‐time access to denominator data and patient registries enabled adjustments for fluctuations testing activity, providing robust data on crude SARS‐CoV‐2 incidence during the changing diagnostic and management strategies. The use of the same data for different purposes, for example, final laboratory reports, information to the public, contact tracing, public health, and science, has been a critical asset for the pandemic response. It has also raised issues concerning data protection and critical capacity of the underlying technical systems and key resources. However, even with these limitations, the setup has enabled decision makers to adopt timely interventions. The experiences from COVID‐19 may motivate a transformation from traditional indicator‐based public health surveillance to an all‐encompassing information system based on access to a comprehensive set of data sources, including diagnostic and reference microbiology.

Vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalization, and death when combining a first dose ChAdOx1 vaccine with a subsequent mRNA vaccine in Denmark: A nationwide population-based cohort study

“…The outcomes of interest were a SARS-CoV-2 infection, defined as a laboratory-confirmed RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2-positive test, and COVID-19-related hospitalization and death. Information on RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2-positive tests was retrieved from the Danish Microbiology Database (MiBa), which is a national database that automatically accumulates both positive and negative test results from all Danish departments of clinical microbiology [15]. Information about rapid antigen tests was not included due to moderate sensitivity in asymptomatic…”

Societal activities associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection: a case-control study in Denmark, November 2020

“…In the study period, free-of-cost RT-PCR tests were offered to all Danes from public test stations [19]. All test results were stored in a person identifiable format in a national database [20], from where eligible cases were extracted. Eligible cases were persons residing in Denmark aged 18-65 years with domestically acquired, RT-PCR confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection with a sample date in the period from 4 to 6 December 2020 (both days included).…”

A nationwide study of Chlamydia trachomatis infections in Denmark during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Numbers of laboratory confirmed C. trachomatis infections were obtained via extracts from MiBa via the webportal at Statens Serum Institut. 10 11 The monthly number of C.trachomatis laboratory tests performed since January 2018 were obtained from national surveillance data extracted from MiBa 12 . Lockdown stringency data were obtained from OxCGRT.…”

“…13 16 Mobile phone-based location data were obtained from Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports. 15 With the exception of the national surveillance data, 12 all data were obtained from publicly available sources.…”

“…We hypothesized, that the incidence of C. trachomatis infections would reflect behavioural changes induced by the COVID-19 restrictions in Denmark. Using publicly available data originating from The Danish Microbiology Database (MiBa) 10 via the webportal at Statens Serum Institut 11 alongside national surveillance data pertaining to the number of tests performed, 12 we compared the incidence of laboratory verified C. trachomatis infections since the initiation of COVID-19 restrictions with that of the preceding two years, 2018-2019. The incidences were contextualized using lockdown stringency information from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) 13 14 and mobility data from Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports.…”