Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, inconsistent data collection and reporting made it difficult for U.S. public health agencies to respond to the disease's inequitable impacts. Demographic and socioeconomic factors, such as age, race, ethnicity, gender, income, and disability status, were particularly challenging to capture. The same data issues would later impede agencies’ ability to prioritize vaccinations for the people most impacted by the pandemic. Even though COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, the underlying data problems remain. “What’s at stake is saving lives,” says Alonzo Plough, chief science officer and vice president of research, evaluation, and learning at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), who joins us for this episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast. Plough explains, “bad data, lack of timely data, [and] lack of connected data” result in “missing opportunities for early intervention that can save lives.” In this two-part episode, Plough joins George Hobor, Javier Robles, and Anita Chandra, as they discuss the deficits of the U.S. public health data infrastructure, how these deficits affect health equity, and how public health agencies can improve their responses to public health crises by transforming their data systems.

- Hobor is a senior program officer at RWJF.- Robles is director of the Center for Disability Sports, Health, and Wellness at Rutgers University and was a member of RWJF’s National Commission to Transform Public Health Data Systems.- Chandra is vice president and director of RAND Social and Economic Well-Being at the RAND Corporation.

In part 1, Mathematica’s Deric Joyner speaks with Plough about the motivation behind the Transforming Public Health Data Systems initiative.

In part 2, Mathematica’s Dave Roberts moderates a conversation between Hobor, Robles, and Chandra, about insights from the initiative and what changes need to happen next to improve the nation’s public health data infrastructure.

Part 2 is available here: https://on.soundcloud.com/ZoipS

Transcripts for parts 1 and 2 are available here: https://mathematica.org/blogs/improving-health-equity-by-transforming-public-health-data-systems