Earlier this year, the NYC Pandemic Response Institute invited a group of multisectoral stakeholders to the first of a series of Data Expos, to reflect on past data sharing practices and guide future partnerships before, during, and after public health emergencies. The session included a moderated panel discussion and a small group exercise where participants discussed illustrative disaster/emergency scenarios and were asked to consider the partnerships, data sources, data sharing infrastructure, and collaborations necessary to understand and respond to the emergency during initial response, expansion, and recovery phases. By convening this group in person, the first Data Expo bolstered professional networks that can be activated in response to a crisis.
This report summarizes the day’s discussions regarding past experiences, creative problem solving , ideas for partnerships and collaborations, as well as next steps for moving ideas forward through the data expo series. It does not represent a specific perspective or recommendation from PRI. The findings from the discussions will be used to inform the agendas for future Data Expos and will lead to PRI’s formal recommendations, proposed data projects and other concrete outcomes.
Community Participation Note: Attendees included stakeholders from academia, government, and business sectors, focusing on data sharing challenges within these groups. Starting with the second expo, civil society, healthcare providers, and community leaders, who have already engaged in related discussions, will be invited.
Based on the event’s discussions, the summary report encompasses:
- Data Sharing Challenges:
- Burden of data sharing due to lack of a common framework.
- Importance of real-time data reporting with clear communication.
- Variations in data literacy and communication skills among stakeholders.
- Issues with data system interoperability.
- Participant Suggestions for Improvement:
- Coordinate and streamline data collection across organizations.
- Engage stakeholders in data design and consider sharing from the outset.
- Enhance data literacy and workforce training for better data use.
- Develop multi-sector partnerships to improve data access and collaboration.
- Explore centralized data platforms and common data models for consistency.
- Partnerships & Collaborations:
- Emphasized multi-level partnerships across government, academia, community, and industry for unified emergency response, real-time data sharing, resource allocation, and public communication.
Next steps for the PRI Data Expo series include establishing a data sharing community of practice focused on documenting best practices, creating case studies, and developing data sharing principles to enhance access, usage, and equity. These efforts will culminate over the next year with recommendations for improving data sharing and capacity across NYC, along with specific projects PRI will undertake to achieve these goals.
Read the full summary report for more information and if you are interested in joining a future Data Expo, email Tara Abularrage.