Lessons Learned in Analytics from the COVID-19 Pandemic

At the beginning of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the US in multiple waves, health systems had to rapidly develop systems for tracking various aspects related to managing the pandemic. This included not just overall trends in incidence, hospitalizations, and outcomes; but also metrics related to the response.

COVID-19 was the first pandemic in the United States since the widespread adoption of electronic health records incentivized by the Meaningful Use program. As a result, the availability of health information was much broader than in any previous pandemic. The widespread impact of COVID-19 also meant that every healthcare institution was affected, and was tracking data related to the pandemic in some form. There has been more focused activity with data and analytics regarding COVID-19 than we have ever had with any other disease, including important advances as well as technical and regulatory obstacles.