The rapid spread of COVID-19 has placed an enormous burden on those treating patients with the disease. Headlines are filled with the stories of front-line workers racing against the clock to test, isolate, care for, and comfort the millions of people impacted since the crisis began.
Yet behind the scenes, a parallel narrative is unfolding. Across the healthcare ecosystem, stakeholders are grappling with how coronavirus data is collected, shared, and analyzed. Some are raising red flags, while others see opportunities for meaningful change. Issues of data privacy, interoperability, and adaptability – which have long been the focus of attention in health IT – have taken on a new urgency. And questions prompted by the pandemic are driving national conversations:
How can clinicians create accurate medical problem lists when standardized coding systems are slow to keep up with new clinical terminology?
How do we balance patient privacy with the imperative to quickly aggregate and learn from population health data?
How will the dramatic increase in at-home testing and telehealth change the way patients expect to access their own data and the health system as a whole?
