Covid-19-19 began with the pandemic five years ago and eventually created a critical vulnerability in the U.S. public health system with too many lives. We continue to feel the impact of today.
I recently attended the World Economic Forum’s annual health care roundtable, and the overall theme is that data is new oil, the fuel for our future. In the healthcare industry, there is nothing more appropriate. Real-time access to reliable data is essential to support experts when facing a health crisis. It is further recognized that, like oil, the raw data must be perfected to be useful, but I want to further expand on the analogy: vehicles and drivers must also be equipped to use fuel efficiently (data). In healthcare, not only must the accurate data be collected as quickly as possible, it must also be analyzed and the refined products are delivered to frontline vehicles (doctors, nurses, pharmacists). Perhaps most importantly, drivers (patients) must be prepared to leverage products (data-driven prevention and treatment) and identify and avoid contaminants (disinformation).
A recent example highlights the value of shared data supporting experts during a health crisis, amid a multi-state response to a measles outbreak. We continue to see recurring vaccine hesitation and distrust of public health that could lead to more lives. Similarly, in the latest MPOX outbreak in the past two to three years, the outbreak was already running when local public health officials received viable data.
These recent examples highlight the ongoing difficulties in providing data across the country and expand the gap in our public health preparations and what we need to do not only to prepare for the next pandemic.
COVID-19 exposes incompleteness of our healthcare system
Most obviously, Covid-19 has focused on the technology gap across the healthcare system as well as the overall lack of interoperability and data sharing.
Early response efforts in 2020 were slowed down by the use of old technology in fax machines to collect test results. Our huge reliance on such outdated technologies is an important limitation of dissemination of information that is not usually current or standardized.
Even if data flows in, it is limited and comes from many different sources that require manual processing to deduplication, geographic relevance and overall refinement to achieve accurate test results and case counts. Disease Control and Prevention and the State Public Health Center lagged behind from the outset, partly because of the unpredictability of the data (unpredictable format), which complicates our national response and education to the public.
Prices of poor public health education
The lack of scientific literacy and willingness to participate in public health understanding has also created tensions that are far beyond the limitations of our technology. Communication in the early stages of the pandemic was sporadic and inconsistent.
If our public health officials can better have the necessary resources and data from the outset, we may have less evidence in translating the real experience of novel coronavirus into updated public health guidance, minimizing the iteration of uninformed recommendations that appear to promote uninformed recommendations within the community. If our public is prepared to better understand the adaptability of the virus, changes in evidence and development of scientific advice, perhaps we can avoid some deep skepticism that is sensitive to false information. Our industry simply isn’t ready for the rapid spread of cross-social media, creating uncertainty, doubt and total resistance.
In the case of myocarditis, misinformation is an important factor, a rare complication of COVID-19 vaccination. This is seven times more likely to happen in a Covid-19 infection than the vaccine itself. Among patients infected after vaccination, the risk of myocarditis is reduced in half. The broader public efforts to assess these risks, enabling them to make reasonable, informed decisions, highlighting opportunities in the healthcare industry to improve how we communicate information across different audiences and channels, including providing easy-to-digest educational snippets to promote the understanding and acceptance of this information.
A wake-up call about health equity
The pandemic has not affected every community and population equally. Adults in lower socioeconomic positions have five times higher Covid-19 death rates than those in higher socioeconomic status, according to the National Institutes of Health. Other studies have also revealed how historically fragile and marginalized populations have higher infection rates and lower survival rates.
Five years later, prominent structural inequality during the pandemic continues to plague our industry. We must start rebuilding trust with those historically underserved communities to address barriers to care and transparency to ensure that everyone has equitable access to care.
Where does our public health infrastructure come from here?
Our public health system needs to be inspired by our experience. We must restore trust in science and continue to increase our trust in equity, and we have the ability to do this in terms of technology, data connections and dedicated healthcare professionals.
Meanwhile, cutting funding cuts and closures have the potential to force our industry to take a step back and could prepare us for future crises. We eliminate the positions of experts we need to rely on in the future. Keeping our experts scientific and public health resources is crucial, and while they may come from the consequences of the last pandemic, they can ensure we are ready for the next pandemic.
Before the pandemic, emerging technologies and AI innovation were in full swing and gaining enormous appeal across global challenges and beyond.
At this momentum, services such as virtual care and wearable technology have improved accessibility to countless individuals. Additionally, AI tools such as AgentIC AI are used to inform population health outreach and improve access to health care services. This is just the beginning of AI potential. These technologies will help us overcome inequality by bridging gaps in language, education and access, and help us overcome inequality by better understanding potential health threats and addressing these speeds quickly and effectively.
Expanding the rapid, successful launch of the Covid-19 vaccine that saved countless lives, we now have the opportunity to strengthen our infrastructure and data capabilities to ensure we face the next pandemic that is entirely made by the last lesson. As we navigate the current transition, our commitment as an industry should focus on identifying and closing these gaps in infrastructure and ensuring we don’t cause new gaps – to ensure we are ready for the next crisis.
Photos: Elenabs, Getty Images
Dr. Paige Kilian serves as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Inovalon. In this position, Dr. Kilian oversees the compliance of the company’s medical director, the clinical content and design of the company’s software and analysis, as well as clinical training, quality, policy, supervision and related operations. For more than a decade, Dr. Kilian led a team of clinical staff who brought the latest best practices and evidence-based clinical standards to Inovalon’s products and services.
This article passed Mixed Influencer Programs. Anyone can post opinions on MedCity News’ healthcare business and innovation through MedCity Remacence. Click here to learn how.
