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 had been a significant factor, an unsung hero is the information modernization efforts that helped Canada observe and include the sudden rise in infections and meet the demand for public well being companies.
In the case of public well being emergencies, Canadian authorities have lengthy been dedicated to studying from crises, making use of know-how and remodeling programs to place each state and federal businesses for achievement when the following problem arrives. Even inside imperfect political realities, public well being organizations world wide can be taught and emulate Canada’s response via knowledge modernization, probably saving tens of millions of lives within the subsequent public well being emergency.
A proactive method to the specter of a worldwide well being disaster
After the SARS outbreak in 2003, federal and provincial governments in Canada acknowledged that their current public well being programs and IT had been insufficient. Canadian authorities proactively labored with IBM to develop an answer generally known 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 programs that might 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 features, together with case investigation and outbreak administration, in addition to immunization and vaccine inventory management.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, well being businesses had been instantly thrown into the highlight. All of the sudden, public well being businesses needed to cope with:
- A novel illness for which no requirements (equivalent to case definitions) existed
- A quickly evolving illness the place variants, indicators and signs, and interventions modified shortly
- Excessive case volumes and intensive contact tracing, which necessitated employment of recent public well being staff to satisfy demand (with restricted coaching obtainable)
- New vaccines and evolving protocols, equivalent to mixing and matching doses with totally different vaccines
- The necessity to talk well being dangers to the general public based mostly on quickly growing knowledge and unsure interpretations
Although each the US and Canada confronted unprecedented challenges throughout this time, the Canadian provinces that had been geared up with Panorama had been higher ready to reply to 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 potential to handle giant 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 be taught 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 programs, and getting ready individuals with the correct data and abilities.
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 info wanted for public well being professionals to forecast and determine rising tendencies 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 knowledge. Information silos usually happen when knowledge is just not shared or accessible, resulting in workarounds and incomplete info. It’s essential to ascertain knowledge sharing agreements upfront of an emergency.
Lesson 3: Deal with knowledge volumes with system integration.
Each Canadian and US public well being businesses had been overwhelmed by large volumes of knowledge through the COVID-19 pandemic. US businesses invested emergency COVID-19 funding into new case administration and make contact with coaching options. Nevertheless, these had been usually stand-alone options that didn’t deal with the underlying problems with siloed, incomplete or duplicative knowledge.
Canada used built-in public well being info programs, like Panorama, for seamless knowledge ingestion, cleaning and import processing. By programs integration by way of open APIs and different technique of integrating knowledge into affected person well being data, this served as the one supply of reality for all publicity, case investigation, contact tracing, outbreak administration and case administration info for every resident.
Lesson 4: Undertake a cloud-native structure to make sure elastic scalability.
Most of the investments in new know-how options from the COVID-19 pandemic are actually being sundown. For sustainable investments, public well being businesses want the flexibility to scale knowledge and knowledge programs to the information volumes skilled throughout steady-state operations in addition to throughout emergency responses. Investing in a cloud-native resolution affords a versatile structure and a future-proof resolution that enables the general public well being company to have elastic scalability.
Lesson 5: Prioritize agile configurability to adapt to growing illness eventualities.
Canadian public well being businesses benefited from IBM Panorama’s means to serve all 100+ reportable illnesses and situations. When the novel coronavirus began to emerge from lab assessments, indicators and signs led epidemiologists to code this knowledge in a car parking zone inside Panorama, till LOINC and SNOWMED formally coded COVID-19. This type of configurability is critical to adapt to rising illnesses and situations, as an alternative of programs that solely serve single illnesses and situations.
Lesson 6: Empower finish customers to reply quickly with a straightforward, customizable system.
The general public well being area has skilled a big turnover as individuals retire or expertise burnout. Information 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 recent customers.
Lesson 7: Use storytelling to interact stakeholders and the general public.
Whereas epidemiologists are geared up 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 info officers and state well being officers to border knowledge insights to maximise public understanding and motion.
Create a proactive knowledge modernization plan to arrange for the surprising
COVID-19 revealed alternatives to vary the best way public well being is managed, in addition to the necessity to spend money on know-how. With the CDC Information Modernization Initiative and Public Health Infrastructure Grants, now’s the time for US public well being businesses to be taught from fellow public well being businesses, like these in Canada, as they modernize.
By taking a proactive knowledge modernization method, US public well being businesses can handle steady-state operations and be higher ready to reply to the unknowns of the following public well being emergency.
Incorporate these lessons into your data modernization journey
