The Value of COVID-19 Data Collection

One of the proactive failures of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) preparation was the delayed start to data collection. While precautions were made to equip hospitals and health systems with resources, personnel were re-allocated to at-need divisions, and telemedicine was greenlit by payers, little uniformity was practiced among states logging patients and disease spread.

It is now 3 months after the fact that investigators such as Pinar Karaca-Mandic, PhD, are stressing that clinicians learn from this shortcoming in future pandemic risks.

In the next segment of an interview with Contagion, Karaca-Mandic, Academic Director of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, discussed the found value of COVID-19 data in pandemic response—and what may have gone wrong back in March.

“Really, I think there’s going to be more and more effort and more and more need for data reporting, and we have the capability to do this,” she explained. “It’s just that maybe we were never asked to do this at such a large scale.”

Karaca-Mandic also discussed the variety of technology now available to help immediate clinicians, patients, public health officials, and payers stay connected.

“Some more proactive data collection, real-time data collection, and standardized data collection are needed,” she stressed.