Page 14 - Doing Data Together by The Scotsman

DOINGDATATOGETHER
Strength in numbers
We asked six significant figures in the sector: What has the Covid-19 pandemic taught us about the importance and value of data?
JASON LEITCH
NATIONAL CLINICAL DIRECTOR, SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
Even before the pandemic, Scottish Government analysts were developing new ways to share data, collaborate and gain a better understanding of how life is changing for different parts of Scottish society.
However, over the last few months, the pace and scale
of this development has been unprecedented. Rapid and extensive expansion of data has allowed us to track and respond to Covid-19. Data has played a critical role throughout the pandemic, and there is much to learn in terms of how we use data in future.
Data has been vital to modelling the potential impacts of the pandemic on demand for health and other services, to ensure
they have sufficient capacity to respond to the surge in infection.
It has also been used to inform the actions required to minimise impact and keep people safe. Daily “observed” data on indicators such as cases, testing, hospitalisations and deaths has been essential in informing policy and operational decision-making. The Scottish Government has been recognised by the Office for Statistics Regulation for regularly publishing a wide range of transparent information on these indicators.
Sharing data publicly in this timely way keeps everyone informed and can help build trust and confidence in decision- making and public messaging.
PROFESSOR ALEX PENTLAND
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
I think a consensus is developing that data, particularly neighbourhood data, is a public good. You need neighbourhood- level data to see disparities in health outcomes. You cannot answer “Why are these people dying and those people not?” without it.
You have to aggregate and anonymise such data to protect privacy, but it can help us see if governments are doing the right thing ... or not. For example, our Covid-19 work in New York showed many people were getting infected in grocery stores, so they changed policy and staff brought orders outside rather than letting people in to shop. You can also use data
to identify local patterns, like more people suddenly going to hospital, to predict where outbreaks will happen.
We’ve also learned more about using big data for public good – and that this
varies around the world. If you look at track and trace, South Korea was lauded for using a government app to flatten its Covid-19 curve, but that couldn’t happen in most democractic societies. To be effective, you need a small number of cases and everybody using the app. South Korea could do that, but in the UK or US, privacy concerns arise.
After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, we heard lots about evil surveillance. That conversation forgot the good side of data. Now it’s time to use data effectively at local level to inform policy.
To avoid data being concentrated in the hands of powerful
corporations and governments, we need “data unions” to empower communities to understand data and control its use. It’s about moving away from centralisation of data to distributed control.
14