TY - JOUR
T1 - Development and Actionability of the Dutch COVID-19 Dashboard
T2 - Descriptive Assessment and Expert Appraisal Study
AU - Bos, Véronique L L C
AU - Jansen, Tessa
AU - Klazinga, Niek S
AU - Kringos, Dionne S
N1 - Funding Information: All authors have read and approved this manuscript. This research was funded by the Amsterdam University Medical Centres (UMC) in the Netherlands. The authors thank everyone involved in the production and upkeep of the Dutch COVID-19 dashboard for their inspiration for this research, extending from those sourcing the data to those analyzing and visualizing the data in the dashboard. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/10/12
Y1 - 2021/10/12
N2 - Background: Web-based public reporting by means of dashboards has become an essential tool for governments worldwide to monitor COVID-19 information and communicate it to the public. The actionability of such dashboards is determined by their fitness for purpose-meeting a specific information need-and fitness for use-placing the right information into the right hands at the right time and in a manner that can be understood. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify specific areas where the actionability of the Dutch government's COVID-19 dashboard could be improved, with the ultimate goal of enhancing public understanding of the pandemic. Methods: The study was conducted from February 2020 to April 2021. A mixed methods approach was carried out, using (1) a descriptive checklist over time to monitor changes made to the dashboard, (2) an actionability scoring of the dashboard to pinpoint areas for improvement, and (3) a reflection meeting with the dashboard development team to contextualize findings and discuss areas for improvement. Results: The dashboard predominantly showed epidemiological information on COVID-19. It had been developed and adapted by adding more in-depth indicators, more geographic disaggregation options, and new indicator themes. It also changed in target audience from policy makers to the general public; thus, a homepage was added with the most important information, using news-like items to explain the provided indicators and conducting research to enhance public understanding of the dashboard. However, disaggregation options such as sex, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity and indicators on dual-track health system management and social and economic impact that have proven to give important insights in other countries are missing from the Dutch COVID-19 dashboard, limiting its actionability. Conclusions: The Dutch COVID-19 dashboard developed over time its fitness for purpose and use in terms of providing epidemiological information to the general public as a target audience. However, to strengthen the Dutch health system's ability to cope with upcoming phases of the COVID-19 pandemic or future public health emergencies, we advise (1) establishing timely indicators relating to health system capacity, (2) including relevant data disaggregation options (eg, sex, socioeconomic status), and (3) enabling interoperability between social, health, and economic data sources.
AB - Background: Web-based public reporting by means of dashboards has become an essential tool for governments worldwide to monitor COVID-19 information and communicate it to the public. The actionability of such dashboards is determined by their fitness for purpose-meeting a specific information need-and fitness for use-placing the right information into the right hands at the right time and in a manner that can be understood. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify specific areas where the actionability of the Dutch government's COVID-19 dashboard could be improved, with the ultimate goal of enhancing public understanding of the pandemic. Methods: The study was conducted from February 2020 to April 2021. A mixed methods approach was carried out, using (1) a descriptive checklist over time to monitor changes made to the dashboard, (2) an actionability scoring of the dashboard to pinpoint areas for improvement, and (3) a reflection meeting with the dashboard development team to contextualize findings and discuss areas for improvement. Results: The dashboard predominantly showed epidemiological information on COVID-19. It had been developed and adapted by adding more in-depth indicators, more geographic disaggregation options, and new indicator themes. It also changed in target audience from policy makers to the general public; thus, a homepage was added with the most important information, using news-like items to explain the provided indicators and conducting research to enhance public understanding of the dashboard. However, disaggregation options such as sex, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity and indicators on dual-track health system management and social and economic impact that have proven to give important insights in other countries are missing from the Dutch COVID-19 dashboard, limiting its actionability. Conclusions: The Dutch COVID-19 dashboard developed over time its fitness for purpose and use in terms of providing epidemiological information to the general public as a target audience. However, to strengthen the Dutch health system's ability to cope with upcoming phases of the COVID-19 pandemic or future public health emergencies, we advise (1) establishing timely indicators relating to health system capacity, (2) including relevant data disaggregation options (eg, sex, socioeconomic status), and (3) enabling interoperability between social, health, and economic data sources.
KW - Actionability
KW - COVID-19
KW - Communication
KW - Dashboard
KW - Government
KW - Netherlands
KW - Pandemic
KW - Performance intelligence
KW - Public health
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117782246&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.2196/31161
DO - https://doi.org/10.2196/31161
M3 - Article
C2 - 34543229
SN - 2369-2960
VL - 7
SP - e31161
JO - JMIR public health and surveillance
JF - JMIR public health and surveillance
IS - 10
M1 - e31161
ER -