Research Paper

INTRODUCTION

Policymaking in public health involves the “development, planning, and enactment of programs that are designed to improve the quality of health of individuals” (Jakobsen, Eklund Karlsson, Skovgaard, and Aro, 2019). It is seen that laws and policies are important that they can keep people safe and healthy by encouraging them to adhere to the safety health rules. Today, IT has been a major advancement and this has contributed to effective policymaking in issues such as public health and safety.

The societal problem is Coronavirus. This issue has drawn global attention over the last couple of months as there has been a significant number of deaths recorded (Bernard Stoecklin, Rolland, Silue, Mailles, Campese, and Simondon, 2020). Coronavirus is also referred to as COVID-19. COVID-19 is the subset of the Coronavirus in that it means Coronavirus Disease 2019.

With the spread of the virus globally, the world has literally come to a “stop.” Various countries like Italy have been put under lockdown as the virus has led to the cancellation of various sporting events due to health concerns. Countries have also issued travel advisories to their citizens against traveling to countries that have been most affected by the virus (Jiang, Deng, Zhang, Cai, Cheung, and Xia,2020). With this, therefore, we would seek to design a policy that could help in preventing this virus from spreading further. We will name this policy as ‘COVID-19 Health Policy.’ The policy would seek to address various aspects such as preparedness, communication to staff and patients, protecting the workforce, and protecting the patient.

Information technology has contributed to a major advancement in health policymaking. Therefore, with the help of big data analytics, scientist and medical personnel are able to get accurate patient data and determine the effective ways with which infected individuals can be isolated in a quarantine area (Wing, Simon, and Bello-Gomez, 2018). This is important in that it will help reduce the spread of the virus. Moreover, it is seen that information technology is important in implementing the health policy in that it has led to an improved quick decision making (Holden, Hopkins, Belton, Butty, Tabor, and Satcher, 2019). Previously, policymakers in the healthcare sector used traditional methods to provide the needed guidelines in health policy. Today, IT has been adopted in health policymaking through the provision of a digital dashboard that gives real-time health information for rapid solutions. Additionally, information technology is important in health policymaking in that it can be able to help identify several disease infected areas (ZellnerLawrence, Douglas, Rollins, Josiah Willock, Cooper, Gooden, and Mack, 2019). This can be done by mapping such areas using information technology tools.

The Government and public are the stakeholders in this policymaking process to create a successful health policy on COVID-19.

RESEARCH STATEMENT

Big data and data visualization tools in Information Technology (IT) can support effective stakeholder participation in the policymaking process for a societal problem. From this research statement, our study sought to answer our research question as follows,

· How Bigdata and data visualization tools can support effective stakeholder participation in the policy-making process for COVID-19.

SOCIETAL PROBLEM

Background of COVID-19

In December 2019, coronavirus was detected in three patients that had been infected with pneumonia. Additionally, these patients had a cluster of acute respiratory illness from Wuhan, China (Chen, Hu, Zhang, Jiang, Wang, Shi, and Zhang, 2020). By the end of February 2020, the virus has been transmitted to several countries of the world including Europe. Recent research explained that it remains prudent that the incubation period should be 14 days.

Based on a large dataset from individuals infected in China, the overall case-fatality risk of this virus among laboratory-confirmed cases was higher in the beginning stages of the virus outbreak. However, this has significantly reduced over time to a small percentage of individuals affected after February 1st. There is currently no specified treatment of COVID-19 or a vaccine against it. On the other side, there are various clinical trials globally to assess the treatment options of this virus.

How COVID-19 gets infected by the Public

According to the World Health Organization, coronavirus disease 2019 can be transmitted in all areas including hot or humid weather. As seen earlier, Coronavirus is a respiratory disease that can spread from person to person. As we currently understand, there are various ways with which the virus can be spread in public. For example, the virus is spread mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets such as coughs. Additionally, the virus gets infected in public through contaminated surfaces and they one touches their mouth, eyes, or face. Coronavirus symptoms begin to show 14 days after exposure to the disease.

Difference between Pandemic and Coronavirus

Coronavirus and pandemic are all but the same thing. It is seen that a pandemic is a global disease outbreak. There are various examples of pandemic diseases in history. However, recently, COVID-19 is seen as a pandemic. This virus has been declared by the World Health Organization as being pandemic on March 12, 2020. Before a disease becomes pandemic, it is first classified as an epidemic. An epidemic is a disease that rapidly spreads within a specific region. The Zika and Ebola viruses were epidemic. Coronavirus began as an epidemic in China before spreading globally in months and becoming a pandemic.

Need for Policy Making to Prevent COVID-19

Preparedness

Here, it is essential to stay prepared about the situation regarding COVID-19. We are supposed to have up to date information in our local community. Additionally, we must develop our emergency plan. The virus could lead to some people being absent to work; hence we should have alternative options.

Communication to Staff and Patients

The health policy ensures that we are able to communicate about the COVID-19 to the staff in healthcare facilities. This is important in getting to understand the preparedness plan. Additionally, this information should also be communicated to the patients. Patients should be provided with updates on changes in their choices regarding appointments and providing non-urgent care via telephones.

Protecting the Workforce and Patients

The health policy should seek to protect staff and patients at all times. For example, it is important to screen patients and visitors for the COVID-19 symptoms before being allowed access to the facility. Staff members should also use personal protective equipment, and that every sick employee stays at home. On the other hand, patients should stay up to date on ways to manage the virus. Also, patients with respiratory symptoms should be separated from those seeking care.

COVID-19 Preventive Measures using Big Data

Big data has played an important role in preventing the spread of various diseases in the world today. There are two ways in which big data can be used in preventing and controlling COVID-19. For example, the use of preventive modeling and turn point projection is crucial in fighting the pandemic. By aggregating and analyzing the virus data with advanced analytics techniques for big data. This has helped public health authorities to optimize their decision making. Big data tools like Baidu Migration Map can determine how people move globally and predict the number of potentially infected. This is important in deciding the allocation and control measures. The other way of employing big data in preventing COVID-19 is by using supercomputing for the development of the drug and vaccine. Currently, majority of the Chinese supercomputers are working to help China CDC in developing new vaccines. Researchers are deploying the use of supercomputers to explore targets, selecting drugs, and toxicological studies (Jiang et al., 2020).

COVID-19 Awareness to the Public

This policy is made by the government by involving public in the process of policy making and implementation. So, the stakeholders for this policy are both government and public.

The virus is now spreading fast. This means that appropriate awareness training to the public will play an integral role in helping stop its spread. It is important that the public is educated on the symptoms of the virus, how they can pre-emptively protect themselves and others, and what measures should be taken in an individual is exposed to the virus. This is the first line of defense of the COVID-19.

Conclusion

Policy making in public health entails “the development, planning, and enactment of programs that are designed to improve the quality of health of individuals” (Jakobsen et.al, 2019). Information Technology on health policy making presents various aspects for improving healthcare. This includes reduction in human error, improvement in clinical outcomes, improvement in practice efficiencies, and tracking data.

References

Bernard Stoecklin, S., Rolland, P., Silue, Y., Mailles, A., Campese, C., & Simondon, A. (2020). First cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in France: surveillance, investigations and control measures, January 2020. Eurosurveillance, 25(6). doi:10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.6.2000094

Chen, Z., Hu, J., Zhang, Z., Jiang, S., Wang, T., Shi, Z., & Zhang, Z. (2020). Caution: The clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients at admission are changing. doi:10.1101/2020.03.03.20030833

Holden, K. B., Hopkins, J., Belton, A., Butty, K., Tabor, D. C., & Satcher, D. (2019). Leveraging Science to Advance Health Equity: A Regional Health Policy Research Center’s Approach. Ethnicity & Disease, 29(Supp2), 323-328. doi:10.18865/ed.29.s2.323

Jakobsen, M. W., Eklund Karlsson, L., Skovgaard, T., & Aro, A. R. (2019). Organizational factors that facilitate research use in public health policy-making: a scoping review. Health Research Policy and Systems, 17(1). doi:10.1186/s12961-019-0490-6

Jiang, F., Deng, L., Zhang, L., Cai, Y., Cheung, C. W., & Xia, Z. (2020). Review of the Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Journal of General Internal Medicine. doi:10.1007/s11606-020-05762-w

Lipsitch, M., Swerdlow, D. L., & Finelli, L. (2020). Defining the Epidemiology of Covid-19 — Studies Needed. New England Journal of Medicine. doi:10.1056/nejmp2002125

Wing, C., Simon, K., & Bello-Gomez, R. A. (2018). Designing Difference in Difference Studies: Best Practices for Public Health Policy Research. Annual Review of Public Health, 39(1), 453-469. doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040617-013507

Zellner Lawrence, T., Douglas, M. D., Rollins, L., Josiah Willock, R., Cooper, D. L., Gooden, R. A., … Mack, D. H. (2019). Health Policy Engagement Strategy for the Health Information Technology Policy Project of the Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center for Health Disparities Research. Ethnicity & Disease, 29(Supp2), 377-384. doi:10.18865/ed.29.s2.377