This file hosts an abstract for SciDataCon 2016 (to take place on 11-13 September, 2016, in Denver, U.S.), which was submitted on May 31. The abstract has been accepted on July 7, and the talk has been included in the session The Data requirements and availability for decision makers (ID 93).
Data sharing in public health emergencies
"Open data matters most when the stakes are high" – and what this means in the context of public health emergencies like the ongoing Zika virus outbreak.
Public health emergencies require profound and swift action at scale with limited resources, often on the basis of incomplete information and frequently under rapidly evolving circumstances. While donations of physical goods, personnel, financial aids and some other forms of emergency-triggered sharing go back millennia, data sharing is a relatively new facet of public health emergency responses. As our societies become ever more digital and globally connected, the profile of data is growing in many ways, and with it the potential impact of policies and practices around sharing and safeguarding data.
The SciDataCon website states that “the most significant contemporary research challenges—and in particular those reaching across traditional disciplines—cannot be properly addressed without paying attention to issues relating to data”.
With this contribution, I propose to present a range of contemporary research challenges related to major public health emergencies from around the globe and to highlight how the sharing or safeguarding of data and digital infrastructure affected the respective responses, particularly in ways that do not easily map to traditional disciplines.
The underlying project is conducted by way of open notebook science that can be followed and contributed to via https://github.com/Daniel-Mietchen/datascience/blob/master/emergency-response.md .
The talk itself will be given on the basis of https://github.com/Daniel-Mietchen/talks/blob/master/SciDataCon2016.md , which will be continuously expanded until the event takes place, and possibly thereafter.
The author works as a contractor for the National Institutes of Health, including on issues around data sharing in public health emergencies.