TY - JOUR
T1 - The experiences of 33 national COVID-19 dashboard teams during the first year of the pandemic in the World Health Organization European Region
T2 - A qualitative study
AU - Barbazza, Erica
AU - Ivanković, Damir
AU - Davtyan, Karapet
AU - Poldrugovac, Mircha
AU - Yelgezekova, Zhamin
AU - Willmington, Claire
AU - Meza-Torres, Bernardo
AU - Bos, V. ronique L. L. C.
AU - Fernandes, Óscar Brito
AU - Rotar, Alexandru
AU - Nuti, Sabina
AU - Vainieri, Milena
AU - Carinci, Fabrizio
AU - Azzopardi-Muscat, Natasha
AU - Groene, Oliver
AU - Novillo-Ortiz, David
AU - Klazinga, Niek
AU - Kringos, Dionne
N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to thank Jeanine Suurmond for methodological advice, Michael Dallas for language editing and all the interviewees who generously shared their time to participate in the study: Assel Abakova; Anna Artsruni; Georgi Asatryan; Jonas Bačelis; Simon Bak; Senad Begić; Tania Boa; Lovro Bucić; Stefan Buttigieg; Alan Cahill; Fabrizio Carinci; Gianfranco Costabile; Phillip Couser; Igor Crnčić; Olgeta Dhono; Michaela Diercke; Mykola Dobysh; Marjolein Don; Anna Fumačová; Aram Ghulijanyan; Clare Griffiths; Veaceslav Gutu; Pouria Hadjibagheri; Luc Hagenaars; Scott Heald; Jonas Kähler; Kristjan Kolde; Martin Komenda; Kristina Kovačikova; Tanja Kustec; Terje Lasn; Sonia Leite; Renata Lenhardcziková; Pedro Licínio Pinto Leite; Jana Lepiksone; Mathias Leroy; Avet Manukyan; Elena Martinez; Graham McGowan; Emma McNair; Lorraine McNerney; Matej Mišik; Susana Monge; Teemu Möttönen; Maja Mrzel; Gints Muraševs; Hugo Agius Muscat; Martina Nagyová; Valentin Neevel; Aleksandar Obradović; André Peralta-Santos; Natalia Plugaru; Ane Radović; Anders Rasmussen; Raul Ritea; Leonardo Rocchi; Josep Romagosa; Giulio Siccardi; Fernando Simon; Margita Štāle; Alexandra Ștefănescu; Kristian Sufliarsky; Patrick Suter; Maríanna Þórðardóttir; Nataša Terzić; Vitaliy Trenkenshu; Alexander Ullrich; Zuzana Vallová; Jeroen van Leuken; Jana Vanagė; Giordano Veltro; Olivia Vereha; Solange Vogt; Liina Voutilainen; Martina Vrbiková; Marjana Vrh; Pauline White; Piotr Wlodarczyk; Kıvanç Yilmaz; and Tatiana Zvonnikova. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was carried out by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (HealthPros – Healthcare Performance Intelligence Professionals), which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 765141. Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was carried out by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (HealthPros – Healthcare Performance Intelligence Professionals), which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 765141. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Background: Governments across the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region have prioritised dashboards for reporting COVID-19 data. The ubiquitous use of dashboards for public reporting is a novel phenomenon. Objective: This study explores the development of COVID-19 dashboards during the first year of the pandemic and identifies common barriers, enablers and lessons from the experiences of teams responsible for their development. Methods: We applied multiple methods to identify and recruit COVID-19 dashboard teams, using a purposive, quota sampling approach. Semi-structured group interviews were conducted from April to June 2021. Using elaborative coding and thematic analysis, we derived descriptive and explanatory themes from the interview data. A validation workshop was held with study participants in June 2021. Results: Eighty informants participated, representing 33 national COVID-19 dashboard teams across the WHO European Region. Most dashboards were launched swiftly during the first months of the pandemic, February to May 2020. The urgency, intense workload, limited human resources, data and privacy constraints and public scrutiny were common challenges in the initial development stage. Themes related to barriers or enablers were identified, pertaining to the pre-pandemic context, pandemic itself, people and processes and software, data and users. Lessons emerged around the themes of simplicity, trust, partnership, software and data and change. Conclusions: COVID-19 dashboards were developed in a learning-by-doing approach. The experiences of teams reveal that initial underpreparedness was offset by high-level political endorsement, the professionalism of teams, accelerated data improvements and immediate support with commercial software solutions. To leverage the full potential of dashboards for health data reporting, investments are needed at the team, national and pan-European levels.
AB - Background: Governments across the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region have prioritised dashboards for reporting COVID-19 data. The ubiquitous use of dashboards for public reporting is a novel phenomenon. Objective: This study explores the development of COVID-19 dashboards during the first year of the pandemic and identifies common barriers, enablers and lessons from the experiences of teams responsible for their development. Methods: We applied multiple methods to identify and recruit COVID-19 dashboard teams, using a purposive, quota sampling approach. Semi-structured group interviews were conducted from April to June 2021. Using elaborative coding and thematic analysis, we derived descriptive and explanatory themes from the interview data. A validation workshop was held with study participants in June 2021. Results: Eighty informants participated, representing 33 national COVID-19 dashboard teams across the WHO European Region. Most dashboards were launched swiftly during the first months of the pandemic, February to May 2020. The urgency, intense workload, limited human resources, data and privacy constraints and public scrutiny were common challenges in the initial development stage. Themes related to barriers or enablers were identified, pertaining to the pre-pandemic context, pandemic itself, people and processes and software, data and users. Lessons emerged around the themes of simplicity, trust, partnership, software and data and change. Conclusions: COVID-19 dashboards were developed in a learning-by-doing approach. The experiences of teams reveal that initial underpreparedness was offset by high-level political endorsement, the professionalism of teams, accelerated data improvements and immediate support with commercial software solutions. To leverage the full potential of dashboards for health data reporting, investments are needed at the team, national and pan-European levels.
KW - COVID-19
KW - WHO European Region
KW - dashboard
KW - health information management
KW - public health surveillance
KW - public reporting of healthcare data
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137209142&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221121154
DO - https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221121154
M3 - Article
C2 - 36060614
SN - 2055-2076
VL - 8
SP - 20552076221121154
JO - Digital health
JF - Digital health
ER -