The Role of Data in a Rapid and Coordinated Response to Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Abstract

How does data support preparedness towards infectious disease emergencies? What information is needed to identify the start of an outbreak? How does data inform the potential severity and spread of an outbreak? The infectious diseases data ecosystem is comprised of information from a wide range of sources like general practices, jurisdictional surveillance systems, clinical research, emergency departments, diagnostic laboratories, epidemiology studies and genomics. The carefully distilled knowledge from this diverse data ecosystem enables better preparedness for and response towards an outbreak. Past infectious disease outbreaks have demonstrated several challenges associated with rapid ag..