The pandemic, which has killed more than 1 million Americans, highlighted ineffective data infrastructure across the U.S. health system, in a country that’s home to some of the world’s most influential technology companies: Coronavirus case reports sent by fax machine. Clunky tech for monitoring vaccine distribution — and major gaps in tracking who got jabbed. State-level data out of sync with federal figures. Supply chain breakdowns that left health care providers without needed protective equipment.
And Congress knew about the potential for these problems long before covid. Lawmakers mandated the Department of Health and Human Services to better integrate U.S. data management systems to allow stakeholders to better share information years ago, in 2006 —long before the pandemic…
They said there are many reasons the system was never created: the complexity of the task and inadequate funding; a federal-first approach to health that deprives state and local agencies of resources; unclear ownership of the project within HHS; insufficient enforcement mechanisms to hold federal officials accountable; and little agreement on what data is even needed in an emergency… Read the full article here.