Assignment 11 JAH

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Jun 27, 2024

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1 Assignment 11: Public Health Surveillance Janel Handy University of Maryland Global Campus HIMS 661: The Application of Information Technology in Healthcare Administration Dr. Craig Drayden August 2, 2023

2 Public Health Surveillance Public Health Surveillance is the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data essential to planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2018). During COVID-19 pandemic, public health surveillance was pertinent to help end the worldwide pandemic and reduce morbidity, mortality, and impact. The evaluation of COVID-19 data help public health officials to analyze vaccinations, deaths, and hospitalizations to monitor the progress of the virus and predict trends regarding transmission of the disease. Therefore, surveillance data helped to identify areas where risk of exposure was high and identify groups of people who were the most vulnerable to help mitigate the risk. The CDC utilized various tools to help collect and analyze information based off of the type of data such as contact tracing, electronic health records, and laboratory results. Contact tracing was utilized to help identify people who were exposed to the virus and follow up on their progress whereas electronic health records were utilized to collect patient-level data such as demographics and medical history. The use of this information helped the CDC to have a more comprehensive view of the pandemic and assisted with making informed decisions regarding the pandemic. The various tools were utilized to help monitor the progress of the virus, devise plans to mitigate risk of exposure, and make informed decision. During the pandemic, data regarding hospitalizations and COVID-19 cases were utilized to show areas where the transmission rate was higher to help make informed decisions on which areas needed to implement lockdown restrictions. Additionally, the information gathered helped public health officials to learn what resources were needed.

3 The CDC COVID-19 tracker website collected data pertaining to COVID cases, hospitalizations, death, vaccinations, and variants. The COVID-19 tracker provided the number of cases geographically as well as age, race, and gender were included in the data tracker. This information was useful when analyzing what demographic was mostly affected by COVID-19. Additionally, hospitalizations were tracked to analyze the number of people who were hospitalized due to COVID-19. Tracking hospitalizations were useful for providers and clinical workers to implement processes when caring for COVID-19 patients. Patients who passed away due to COVID-19 complications were tracked to analyze the cause of their death and if they had pre-existing conditions. Scientist developed vaccines to help combat the rapid transmission of COVID-19. The trackers helped to inform public health officials on the number of people who received the vaccine and the demographic of what population received the vaccine. The CDC utilized various communication channels to disseminate information regarding COVID-19 such as the COVID-19 tracker website, media, and press releases. However, the CDC Tracker website was used consistently due to the data being updated in real time which helped to give the healthcare industry and the public information on how the disease was progressing. Traditional media such as online newspapers, television channels, and radio was the main source of information regarding COVID-19. The media world attempted to be the first to provide information without providing too many details to prevent the possibility of false information. There was a lot of false information being communicated especially via social media. Social media was the source of 88% of misinformation whereas misinformation is defined as false information being shared but no harm is meant (OECD,

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4 2020). Reliable data information is provided from healthcare providers, state and local health departments, and laboratories to ensure accurate information is being provided to the public. The CDC gathers information from state and local health departments, electronic health records, and health care providers. The COVID-19 data was aggregated and analyzed by the CDC and loaded on the CDC website to help inform the public. Additionally, healthcare providers submitted their COVID-19 results to their state to help track the nationwide positivity rate. Information regarding the COVID-19 was updated regularly on the CDC website. However, the frequency of certain data uploaded to the website was dependent upon how fast state and local health facilities could provide the information to the CDC. There are times when there are technical issues that prohibits the CDC from being able to upload information immediately. Before the CDC uploads information, they would perform quality checks to ensure the information was accurate. The focus of the CDC is to ensure accurate data is being relayed to the public. Gathering information nationwide can be challenging and the CDC worked to make improvements post COVID-19 to improve their surveillance system process. The CDC implemented Early warning and response surveillance (EWARS) systems that was used during the early COVID-19 response but as COVID-19 began to progress the CDC learned some modifications were needed. One important lesson was implementation of a global EWARS system which will be more effective when countries publicly share data about critical variables which could help leverage resources and reduce redundancies, particularly for longer-term surveillance (Ricks et al., 2022). The implementation of global EWARS could

5 improve effectiveness of data so countries can share data faster to improve results of a disaster sooner. The COVID-19 virus was a nationwide pandemic that affected so many people throughout the world. The CDC worked vigorously to reduce exposure of the virus and discover ways to effectively care for patients. The data tracker was significantly beneficial to disseminate accurate information nationwide. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for strengthened surveillance data to accurately track the distribution of infectious diseases for improving public health responses to improve infection and control (Lau et al., 2021).

6 Reference Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018, November 15). Introduction to public health surveillance. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/training/publichealth101/surveillance.html Dron, L., Kalatharan, V., Gupta, A., Haggstrom, J., Zarrifa, N., Morris, A., Arora, P., Park, J. (2022). Data capture and sharing in the COVID-19 pandemic: a cause for concern. Lancet Digital Health, 4 , 748-755. Lau, D.T., Sosa, P., Dasgupta, N., He, H. (2021). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health surveillance and survey data collections in the United States . American Journal of Public Health, 1 . https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306551 OECD. (2020, July 3). Transparency, communication, and trust: The role of public communication in responding to the wave of disinformation about the new Cornonavirus. OED Home. https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/transparency-communication-and- trust-the-role-of-public-communication-in-responding-to-the-wave-of-disinformation- about-the-new-coronavirus-bef7ad6e/ Ricks, P.M., Njie, G.J., Dawood, F. S., Blain, A.E. (2022). Lessons learned from CDC’s global COVID-19 early warning and response surveillance system. CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases, 28( 13), 1-9.

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Assignment 11 JAH

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