We have been watching the statistics for more than weeks now. We watch with a sense of disbelief, horror, sorrow, hope, disgust, and impatience. We hear about the number of tests performed, positive tests, negative tests, confirmed cases, number of individuals who have recovered, and deaths. We have heard new terms like social distancing, flattening the curve and second wave. We hear statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, Johns Hopkins, our state public health departments and the World Health Organization.

We also hear what we must do to defeat the virus. The “weapons” according to renowned infectious disease specialist Jim Yong Kim, one of the founders in Partners in Health are described in his recent article in the New Yorker. The five weapons to combat this, and any pandemic, are social distancing, testing, contact tracing, isolation and treatments. But one of the weapons I think that he missed is accurate, timely data.

How can we know if social distancing is working, when it can be relaxed, the real number of infected individuals, and how to contact trace, or who to isolate or treat if we do not have accurate and timely test results and diagnoses? To protect health care providers, it is vitally important to know if someone who walks into their clinic has ever tested positive for COVID-19 at the emergency room, a local hospital, or even at a drive through testing site.

Source: www.healthcareitnews.com