Security and emergency management leaders must turn to data management and analytics to further their COVID-19 pandemic response, according to a public health and emergency response group.

The Pandemic Response Insights and Recommendations whitepaper by the Sequoia Project’s Emergency Preparedness Information Workgroup (EPIW) reviewed public COVID-19 response for local, state, and federal emergency preparedness and public health officials and their partners.

The workgroup, consisting of emergency preparedness, response and public health experts, convened over several months to discuss gaps in current emergency response solutions. EPIW recommended ways to make information more readily available to support a more robust and coordinated response to future emergencies, including:

• Build on existing infrastructure to share healthcare data and intelligence across agencies
• Address policy confusion in regards to data management and sharing practices
• Evaluate data analytics capabilities of emergency management agencies

The report contains the full list of suggestions, ranging from data management and healthcare information technology (IT) security to vaccination equity and monitoring. 

Click here for more information on the report.