Most health systems struggled to obtain and analyze real-time data during the COVID-19 pandemic, but places that succeeded can be studied to provide a model for data-enabled responses to future epidemics and pandemics.
The article discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the limitations many health systems faced in accessing and analyzing real-time data, a crucial factor for effective pandemic response. It highlights that while most places struggled, some territories like Iceland, Israel, Qatar, Scotland, and Taiwan successfully developed data capabilities, yielding insights beneficial for guiding national and international decisions. These outliers offer models that can be studied for future pandemic preparedness. The pandemic necessitated complex policy, public health, and clinical decisions, often hindered by insufficient data infrastructure. Key recommendations include the need for developed data infrastructures, improved computational and analytical capacities, transparent data governance, and legislative reforms to manage sensitive data access during global emergencies. The article emphasizes the importance of federated analytical approaches for cross-border data analyses and suggests leveraging existing COVID-19 data capabilities to respond to other health challenges. Transparency, public trust, and collaboration between countries are noted as critical components for building robust data-enabled pandemic responses.