We need trusted data sharing to manage emergencies
Find out more about this project or take part by contacting jobrien@tmforum.org. The Covid-19 outbreak has stress tested cities’ and governments emergency response abilities. In some regions where a data driven approach has been used, authorities have been able to gain the agility needed to get ahead of the virus. Given the very nature of virus and emergency situations a more automated and data driven approach is essential across multitude of services to help manage the ongoing situation. There is an inexplicable link between climate and health emergency as put forward by Dr James Hospedales of Earthmedic. Destruction of plantation exposing new viruses to humans not previously encountered, to air pollution impacting quality of life and health.
As the late, Denis Gilhooly of Global He@lth 2030 put forward, there is a basic need for a globally coordinated, collective and multi-stakeholder response to the “next pandemic”. The Covid-19 pandemic lay bare the shortcomings in our ability as a global community to come together in tackling what is the greatest public health challenge of our time. Digital Health is critical to pandemic detection, prevention, response, and recovery through its unique and inherent ability to keep pace with the velocity, ubiquity and real time nature of the pandemic. We must learn from the experiences of Covid-19. We need to leverage every available resource, strive for data driven and automated responses to enable societies to get “ahead of” the virus or emergency and allow continuity of services.
We saw that certain regions handled the pandemic much more effectively than others. A TM Forum
Catalyst proof-of-concept project seeks to explore and evaluate how a common framework for trusted data sharing could be created and adapted for emergency management, while operating inside the regional regulatory variations. A key consideration is the citizen and the need for consent driven citizen data solutions, with a common core framework and natural extensions for regional variants.
The project aims to build upon a previous iteration which took the following approach in a single geographical region: Where Covid-19 was identified and reported by urban hospitals, the platform allowed the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to use telecom data to analyze where patients have been and who they have been in close proximity to so that at-risk contacts can be traced and urged to isolate to curb the spread of the virus.
Data was aggregated from the CDC, police, transportation companies and telco operators to analyze and manage crowd flows and logistics to minimize virus transmission. Heat maps based on telco data can provide real-time monitoring to understand how people are moving around and to prevent crowds gathering.
The big data platform also enabled targeted support for vulnerable people such as children, the elderly and people with disabilities.
This Catalyst demonstrated how the global pandemic could speed up digital transformation for cities through trusted data-sharing.
The team will show how the platform can be useful for managing not only the immediate emergency and its lasting impacts, but also for addressing future challenges and opportunities. The next phase of work is to explore how to do this on a global scale operating inside regional regulatory contexts.
If you’re interested in learning more about the project and/or taking part, please contact TM Forum’s Vice President of Digital Ecosystems directly at jobrien@tmforum.org.
