Program Looks to Address Gaps in COVID-19 Data

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Data for Action program is supporting a collaboration between Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), CareJourney and the Berkeley Research Group in an effort to fill in the gaps in COVID-19 data.

AcademyHealth manages the Health Data for Action Program.

HCCI President and CEO Niall Brennan in a blog post writes that the data network will enable researchers, clinicians, policymakers and journalists “to better understand the impact and progression of COVID-19.”

“Traditional data sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report are missing or have incomplete data on serious underlying health conditions, hospitalization status, ICU admission, death, and age and the CDC does not report any data stratified by race and ethnicity,” Brennan writes. “This lack of data is especially problematic given the way COVID-19 progression and severity is highly influenced by age and prevalence of comorbidities.”

To read the full blog post, click here.