This open data webinar explored the two questions:
- What is the role of data in the response and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic?
- What datasets, data use cases, and data sharing practices should be promoted in the areas of disease spread, government actions, and community impact to scale our collective action?
In collaboration with the Standards Council of Canada, we invited practitioners, researchers, activists, and experts, who are interested in health and open data, to join this important conversation with:
- Anil Arora, Chief Statistician of Canada
- Bonnie Healy, Health Director at the Siksikaitsitapi – Blackfoot Confederacy Tribal Council
- Éric Martel, Head of the Performance, Analysis, and Evaluation Branch at the Integrated University Center for Health and Social Services (CIUSSS), Montreal
- Dr. Erin Strumpf, McGill University Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar in health economics, studying healthcare service delivery and inequalities in health outcomes.
- Mark Leggott, Executive Director, Research Data Canada
COVID-19 Open Data Discussions
After a discussion by our panel of speakers, participants were invited into breakout groups to crowdsource their knowledge and experience using a methodology designed by the International Open Data Charter (ODC). We facilitated discussions around the following questions:
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Pandemic responses using open data:
What data about the outbreak do governments need to make more informed decisions? What do citizens, businesses, and communities need to know? For example, whether to start or continue a lockdown?
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Using open data to understand government actions:
Where is aid coming from and whom is it being paid to? What are the attributes needed for this data to be useful and trustworthy? How can people use this data once published? What data is needed to support the decisions that impact on people’s lives?
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Using open data to measure community Impact:
What data is needed to predict or measure the economic impacts to support economic policy decisions? What sectors of the economy are being most affected? What sectors are being supported? Who is recovering well? Is anyone being overlooked? Are there segments of the population, and/or communities under more stress than others?
Using COVID-19 Open Data to inform policy on the National Action Plan on Open Government
The outputs of this discussion will be synthesized into a report by Open North and the report will be shared with Canadian stakeholders and policy-makers, informing key policy such as Canada’s next National Action plan on Open Government. The findings will also be communicated to our international partners, the International Open Data Charter and the Digital Government and Data Unit at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who are leading similar conversations around the world in order to draft international best practices for data availability and sharing during health crises such as COVID-19. These reports will make the case and support action for increased health data availability and standardization leading to better preparedness in the future.
About the Standards Council of Canada
The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) is a Crown corporation established by an Act of Parliament in 1970 to foster and promote voluntary standardization in Canada. It is independent of government in its policies and operations, although it is financed partially by Parliamentary appropriation.