Data Modernization is Key to Meet U.S. Healthcare Challenges

A practicing emergency medical physician, who is also the chief medical officer of Alaska, led calls for data modernization in U.S. public health at the recent annual meeting of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

Such information is critical to help physicians in the midst of a pandemic pivot their vaccine response to the neediest patients, Zink said.

"Our data, our surveillance systems, our electronic lab recording, case reporting, and other things need to be just worked on a great deal because they have been limping along throughout this pandemic," Oliver said.

Public health still faces the double challenge of getting the right data to perform analysis on outbreaks, but then also figuring out the best way to present that data so that it is used appropriately and becomes actionable information for public health practitioners, Oliver said.