Sellers Dorsey Director of Healthcare Quality, Karla Richardson, was featured in HealthIT Answers for her insights on the intersection of data analytics and public health.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the critical role that data analytics and visualization play in strengthening the public health response. Now, the worrying spread of the H5N1 bird flu is serving as a reminder of the power of predictive analysis and making data understandable and widely available in keeping people informed and safe.
Both government and non-government health organizations played a key role in monitoring and predicting the COVID-19 pandemic when it emerged in the United States five years ago. They showed how data visualization can aid public health decisions and help experts manage the response.
For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) compiled data from local governments and organizations on wastewater to track and predict hotspots and new COVID-19 outbreaks. By analyzing the presence of the virus in wastewater, it was possible to detect the presence of the virus even before patients began to show symptoms.
