1 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.676838/full

Select one news article relating to technology, information systems, information technology, or a tech company published within the past 6 months. As long as the article relates to technology in some way, it will work for this assignment. You must:

• summarize the news story in 3 to 4 sentences,
• explain how it relates to the ITM 310 class by discussing specific course concepts in 2 to 3 sentences (these can be already covered concepts or concepts we will cover later in the semester),
• either describe why the news is relevant to business students today OR share your opinion on the implications of the story in 2 to 3 sentences, and
• include a full citation in a style of your choice for the article with a working hyperlink to the article.

Health Information Systems in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Short Survey of Experiences and Lessons Learned From the European Region

Introduction: The COVID-19 crisis provides an opportunity to reflect on what worked during the pandemic, what could have been done differently, and what innovations should become part of an enhanced health information system in the future.

Methods: An online qualitative survey was designed and administered online in November 2020 to all the 37 Member States that are part of the WHO European Health Information Initiative and the WHO Central Asian Republics Information Network.

Results: Nineteen countries responded to the survey (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Russian Federation, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan). The COVID-19 pandemic required health information systems (HIS) to rapidly adapt to identify, collect, store, manage, and transmit accurate and timely COVID-19 related data. HIS stakeholders have been put to the test, and valuable experience has been gained. Despite critical gaps such as under-resourced public health services, obsolete health information technologies, and lack of interoperability, most countries believed that their information systems had worked reasonably well in addressing the needs arising during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusion: Strong enabling environments and advanced and digitized health information systems are vital to controlling epidemics. Sustainable finance and government support are required for the continued implementation and enhancement of HIS. It is important to promote digital solutions beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Now is the time to discuss potential solutions to obtain timely, accurate, and reliable health information and steer policy-making while protecting privacy rights and meeting the highest ethical standards.

Introduction

Health information systems (HIS) are systems that incorporate information generated by both population-based and institution-based data sources to provide information to support decision-making (1). The operational response to the COVID-19 pandemic required the rapid adaptation and leveraging of the capabilities of existing HIS to collect, transmit and analyze key health data in real-time that allowed to understand the epidemiological situation and craft appropriate control measures (2). Due to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic in severity and scale, HIS capabilities in many countries were overwhelmed by the information demands and the challenges encountered. Multiple technological gaps were exposed, especially in low and middle-income countries (3, 4). Initial challenges ranged from new demands on key contributors at each health system level, who were already overburdened by the pandemic, to the urgency in determining how to effectively document seamless, continuous COVID-19 processes in electronic health record-embedded (EHR) databases (5).

The WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) unit on Data, Metrics, and Analytics within the Division of Country Health Policies and Systems (WHO/EURO/CPS/DMA) provides the Member States with guidance, tools, and examples of good practices for HIS based on what has worked in the past (6). The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a valuable opportunity to identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing HIS in the context of a global health emergency. Thus, the (WHO/EURO/CPS/DMA) conducted a short qualitative survey to assess Member States' experiences regarding the performance of their national HIS, intending to offer a snapshot of specific concerns, corrective measures adopted, and lessons learned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

In November 2020, the (WHO/EURO/CPS/DMA) designed and administered an online qualitative survey to assess lessons learned and experiences implementing health information systems (HIS) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objectives were to identify experiences, capture valuable insights, and identify issues to be explored further within individual countries. Specifically, we aimed at assessing (1) which components of the HIS worked well, (2) which components of the HIS did not work well, (3) any practical workarounds or solutions, and (4) lessons learned.

The questionnaire included five open-ended questions, one rating scale question, and one yes/no question (Table 1). Open-ended questions were used to gain deeper insights into specific issues and capture responses that would not have been well represented with quantitative data.

The questionnaire, available in English and Russian, was administered to all the WHO National Focal Points (NFPs) of the 37 Member States of the WHO European Health Information Initiative (EHII) and the WHO Central Asian Republics Information Network (CARINFONET) via a secure internet-based system. The completion time was approximately 10 min to motivate respondents during this busy time and achieve a high response rate. The responses to each question were entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, combining the datasets from each language. Qualitative data analysis was performed, extracting common traits from the open-ended questions. Where possible, a summary analysis of the quantitative findings of the survey is offered. Results are presented in an aggregated and anonymized format.

Results

Completed questionnaires were received from 19 out of 37 Member States contacted (51.3% response rate), namely, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Russian Federation, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan.

Participants were prompted to rate the HIS COVID-19 response using a 0-to-10 point scale (Question 7). Scores ranged from 2 to 10 with a median score of 8 (interquartile range [25, 75%]: 7, 8). Only two of the 19 countries gave a score below 5 (Figure 1). The median value among all respondents indicates that most respondents felt that the HIS in their countries worked reasonably well and addressed the needs that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic to a satisfactory degree.