Data sharing in public health emergencies: A study of current policies, practices and infrastructure supporting the sharing of data to prevent and respond to epidemic and pandemic threats
posted on 2018-02-16, 18:01authored byElizabeth Pisani, Amrita Ghataure, Laura Merson
Discussions
around sharing public health research data have been running for close to a
decade, and yet when the Ebola epidemic hit West Africa in 2014, data sharing
remained the exception, not the norm. In response, the GloPID-R consortium of
research funders commissioned a study to take stock of current data sharing
practices involving research on pathogens with pandemic potential. The study
catalogued different data sharing practices, and investigated the governance
and curation standards of the most frequently used platforms and mechanisms. In
addition, it sought to identify specific areas of support or investment which
could lead to more effective sharing of data to prevent or limit future
epidemics.