3 Questions for Laetitia Huiart, Scientific Director of Santé publique France

How has the COVID-19 crisis contributed to the acceleration of open data?

For us, making indicators available as open data is part of a commitment to transparency and to sharing all available indicators with users of varying levels of expertise. Santé publique France embarked on this open data initiative fairly soon after its creation by launching the GEODES platform. At its launch in February 2019, GEODES included 300 indicators across 40 themes related to diseases and injuries (bronchiolitis, influenza, diabetes, etc.) and health determinants (tobacco, vaccinations, workplace accidents, etc.). Today, GEODES features 800 indicators and covers 70 themes.

The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst in this process, in terms of the volume of data transmitted, the content, and the support provided for making it available. During this period and in a very short time, Santé publique France upgraded all of its surveillance channels, making them comprehensive and multi-source, and providing data in near real time. These changes, essential for managing a pandemic of unprecedented scale, were implemented in record time.

At the same time, there was a very high demand for information and transparency. GEODES, the first of our tools, enabled us to communicate indicators rapidly and widely at a very granular level, to report on the health situation, and to allow each individual to stay informed and adjust their behavior accordingly. Since the start of the epidemic, more than 150 reliable, expert-reviewed indicators have been available as open data on our GEODES mapping platform, broken down by region at a very granular level and by age group. This dissemination of information to the public has been supplemented by the weekly publication of national and regional epidemiological updates, “Points on” reports, and press briefings to ensure that the information is conveyed in a format that is understandable and usable by the general public.

The data produced enables journalists, data scientists, and researchers to:

• gain a better understanding of transmission patterns and high-risk situations, and advance knowledge,

• to inform the public, guide individual decisions, and promote adherence to public health policies.

Numerous data visualization websites have also helped the general public understand the evolution of the epidemic. Making the data available for multiple uses by various modeling teams has also provided insights into the dynamics of the epidemic and enabled proactive management planning.

This system is complemented by Santé publique France’s daily dashboard: InfoCovidFrance

What are the challenges of open data in this exceptional situation?

Open data presents a daily challenge for data producers. It requires generating high-quality, reliable indicators from an ever-growing volume of data while protecting personal information.
Generating indicators from population-based surveillance—covering over 66 million people—including volumes exceeding 1 million tests per day, using information systems built on an emergency basis during this crisis, is a daily feat.
The implementation of all these systems in record time was made possible by the strong commitment of our staff and partners, as it was necessary to manage the crisis.

What are the prospects, developments, and next steps in the development of open data?

The next steps for open data at Santé publique France will be to revisit the various surveillance systems by building on the experience gained during the COVID-19 crisis, whether in terms of collecting and analyzing indicators, information systems, or in terms of responsiveness and communication, to extend the progress made to the surveillance of other diseases critical to public health.

The goal of open data is to make data available to the public. All the topics we cover can benefit from open data. It is a new way of working and communicating that requires specific organization and expertise, as well as resources, to produce robust and reliable data and make it accessible quickly.

Open data in health knows no borders; its significance extends beyond France to the European and global levels. The pandemic has shown that real-time data exchange across all countries has never been more critical. It enables supranational organizations to compare global trends. This makes it possible to compare the situation in different countries based on the measures implemented, thereby informing public decision-making. The data produced by Santé publique France has been shared through international platforms.
This international collaboration must continue, and collective work on methodology must be undertaken to ensure data comparability across different countries.

In this regard, Santé publique France is collaborating with the Health Data Hub, the “Health Data Platform” project, to pool health databases with the aim of facilitating access to and reuse of health data, including within the framework of European-level projects. This is very important and thus allows us to deepen our understanding of health phenomena and inform research and decision-making.