Hotter Times #18: Why isn't health data more transparent?
The need for more granular syndromic data in time and space
Syndromic surveillance is the area of health responsible for collecting and monitoring symptom data from medical facilities, typically from emergency departments. In the US, state departments of health are responsible for collecting this data. In some states participation from emergency departments and urgent care facilities is optional.
These data are essential for understanding the spread of disease or other health issues. As I wrote in my last newsletter, we don’t really understand how the consequences of climate change will unfold. Ecosystems have many interdependencies, so a change in one area can have profound knock-on effects that we don’t know about.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2bab442b-62b9-49f8-a951-69a134df5c13_1024x1024.png)
Argentina is witnessing this with the spread of dengue fever due to an explosion in the mosquito population. Similarly, the transmission period of malaria in Zimbabwe has expanded this year due to hotter temperatures. To get ahead of these types of outbreaks we need better monitoring.
Syndromic surveillance gives us a way to connect environmental changes with consequences like dengue outbreaks and malaria. The result of this knowledge is extra time to prepare. Last year, Acapulco witnessed the rapid intensification of a hurricane from Category 1 to 5 in just 24 hours. That wasn’t enough time to prepare for the level of devastation that occurred.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects syndromic surveillance data from the states and aggregates it across the nation. The aggregated data are used in various analyses and power dashboards. Some data are made freely available. Unfortunately what is available is often at unusable resolutions, such as annual or monthly frequencies.
During COVID it was relatively easy to get syndromic data from health departments on a weekly basis. Now that the pandemic is over, these data are more difficult to obtain as processes are dismantled This is a shame because it presented a perfect opportunity to forge a path towards open access to syndromic data. Instead it’s as hard as ever to access this data.
I wrote to the CDC looking for more granular data for heat illness. While I received a thoughtful response with links back to their heat tracker, getting access to data was a bit of a runaround (not the fault of the CDC). They don’t have the right to “republish” the data at more granular levels. Strange, because I thought taxpayers foot the bill for most of this!
Surveillance data is useful for more than heat risk. My incoming batch of graduate students are excited to develop a plug in for the Climate Adaptation Data Platform for a malaria early warning system (MEWS), which can also be used for zika, yellow fever, etc. The goal here is to predict mosquito populations based on environmental conditions. This has the potential to reduce the suffering of millions of people.
State governments need to appreciate the urgent need for transparent health data. Write to your representatives asking for access to syndromic surveillance data. If you want assistance writing a letter, feel free to get in touch!
To do that, we need access to sydronomic surveillance data! While many states provide a “data portal”, the quality is a bit wanting. Indeed, similar to reports on the state of early warning systems in Africa, many are outdated. For example, Louisiana has a reasonably developed dashboard for tracking heat, but data are only available as 9 aggregated regions. Worse, data abrupltly stops in 2018.
In New York, things aren’t much better. Data for tick monitoring is only at the annual level. That is useful for long term planning and policy, but it isn’t at all helpful for people who want to know their individual or family risk exposure throughout the year.
Hotter Times is published by Zato Novo. We are building the Climate Adaptation Data Platform, an open source sensor and data infrastructure to accelerate climate action and digital development projects. Quickly build applications for food security and public health that rely on hyperlocal weather forecasts. Get in touch with Brian at rowe@zatonovo.com to learn more.