A data-driven approach to predict and project infectious disease outbreaks presents new opportunities according to the December 2016 report titled Towards Epidemic Prediction: Federal efforts and Opportunities in Outbreak Modeling”.
The report was produced by the Pandemic Prediction and Forecasting Science and Technology Working Group a part of the National Science and Technology Council www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/nstc.
The report discusses the importance for data and information-sharing and the challenges scientists have in obtaining epidemiological data in a readily usable form. The need for timely data extends beyond the epidemiological data traditionally collected during outbreaks.
During epidemics, data is collected on population locations, movement of hosts of disease agents or locations of vectors, environmental conditions, human behavior, and public health interventions. The data may be available online, but may be scattered around multiple platforms in different formats that may make the data difficult to share where needed.
The NSTC Working Group’s report made several recommendations to:
- Identify key questions likely to arise during outbreak response decision-making in order to help prioritize data collection and modeling goals
- Rapidly process, update, and share data publicly in a form readily usable for analysis by computational tools
- Collaborate with professional organizations, state and local public health offices, and other stakeholders to develop standards for collecting and sharing data needed for modeling and analysis during outbreaks
- Ensure that data obtained with Federal funds is shared rapidly with other Federal stakeholders and in a form readily usable for analysis with computational tools
- Ensure that analytical products address key questions during outbreak response decision-making that are appropriate for public release and are shared rapidly with the public free of charge
- Develop S&T solutions to privacy, security, and related challenges that impede data access such as de-identification algorithms, and synthetic datasets
Go to www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/nstc click on documents and reports to view the report.