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CSTE LEAD 2021-2022

Amanda Masters, Director of Workforce Development at CSTEKaren MartinJessica Arrazola, Director of Educational Strategy at CSTEJoli WeissElandis Miller, CSTEYing Zhang, Senior ScientistRebecca GreeleyBrooke DomanEm StephensPrabhu Gounder, Medical epidemiologistSymone Richardson, Intern at CSTEAlfreda Holloway-Beth, Health Equity Co-ChairBernadette Aylward, CSTECarrell RushJamie Black, Epidemiologist, STD Epi Projects Supervisor +5 others
Posted by Megan Wigginton ·

Using Epi Data to Drive Policy

The Data Elemental to Health Campaign was successful in advocating for resources to support epidemiology. In the era of COVID-19, how can public health partners like CSTE continue to advocate for public health needs to support the Data Modernization Initiative?  What are key elements of messaging and partnership that should be included? Respond to at least one colleague. 

Comments & Events

Amy Bettano Amy Bettano
I think one area that could be helpful in messaging would be to demonstrate how insufficiencies in the current system hampered the initial COVID-19 response efforts. People want data in real time (or as close as possible) and the more we have systems that connect and also speed up the reporting and analytic processes, the more we can do for ourselves and also make available for others to utilize. While the pandemic is still fresh and funding is flowing for COVID, data system upgrades could be linked to that money which would then benefit public health efforts beyond COVID. Lastly, as a state employee I definitely cannot lobby at the state level (even advocacy makes me nervous if it appears to much like lobbying), but there are public health organizations within the state that can. CSTE could help these advocacy groups approach their state legislatures for funding to be directed towards public health data modernization. 
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Jamie Black, Epidemiologist, STD Epi Projects Supervisor Jamie Black, Epidemiologist, STD Epi Projects Supervisor
I think that we learned during this pandemic that large amounts of data coming into our surveillance systems can quickly overwhelm the data processes and can lead to system crashes and delays in reporting back info to the public. These are times when our systems HAVE to be reliable enough to withstand the influx, especially when our public health and political leaders were relying on data from our health department to make critical decisions. I also think that much like the system for healthcare prescribers to track how many scripts they are signing and for what drugs, our reporting labs should also have a system to talk to each other and define what is the best way to report labs, per standards set (and communicated) by state or metropolitan health departments. A lot of surveillance system functionality is based on how information is reported, so focusing funding on streamlining that process would be incredibly valuable.

To Amy's point about wanting data in real time, I think that the more monetary resources that are funneled into upgrading (and fixing) our surveillance systems in a more timely manner would greatly expedite the way we utilize data to make big decisions. 
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