Evaluation of public health analytics: workshop report, 8-9 October 2024

Overview

Public health analytics plays a critical role in supporting emergency responses to epidemics and pandemics. It ranges from mathematical modelling to advanced data analytics of public health issues. Evidence from public health analytics can inform and aid planning and strategy before, during, and after public health emergencies. The field of public health analytics has grown significantly in recent years yet still lacks formal guidelines and principles of best practice. Of particular concern is a lack of guidance on the translation of these analytics into decision making; termed here as the Data-to-Decision pathway. The Datato-Decision community at The Collaboratory seeks to address this gap by evaluating what constitutes impactful public health analytics for decision-making in public health. Previously, a workshop was held in May 2023 to understand the use of advanced analytics in decisionmaking during the COVID-19 pandemic. To further deepen the conversation and ask what is necessary for the translation of modeling and analytics for public health impact, a two-day in-person expert workshop was held on 8-9 October 2024 at the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin (Figure 1). It was co-moderated by The Collaboratory and the Lancet Commission on ‘Strengthening the Use of Epidemiological Modelling of Emerging and Pandemic Infectious Diseases’.