ASTHO’s consortium is designed to allow officials across the country to better access relevant information on mortality and more.
An association of public-health officials has created a consortium to better share data.
The Public Health Data Consortium was launched last month by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) with two technology partners, Veritas Data Research and HealthVerity. The consortium is intended to make data both more accessible and more secure.
Dr. Jen Layden, senior vice president for population health and innovation at ASTHO, noted that while similar consortiums have come together in recent years, ”public health hasn’t always been at the table.”
A release announcing the initiative stated: “State health agencies, providers, payers, researchers, and others rely on this data, which is often difficult to obtain. Through this public-private partnership, members aim to expand access in ways that strengthen communities and support health care and public health systems.”
The new consortium is designed to share real-time public-health data from jurisdictional agencies in ways that are relevant and secure for users. Layden noted that different jurisdictions have different comfort levels and security requirements around data, so in the early stages it’s been looking to elevate information that’s easier to share.
These types of models are something that we in public health have needed to do for some time.
Dr. Jen Layden, ASTHO
“We wanted to start with something where there are fewer burdens, so we looked for examples where states already share data,” Layden said. “Maybe not in the most robust or easy way, but where there have been some examples of it.… So when we looked at mortality data, we felt that that was a really strong opportunity. We recognize that there are differences in states, policy, legal structures, and whatnot, and so we’re reaching out to them directly and having those conversations.”
To support involvement in the consortium, ASTHO is convening an advisory network of public-health agencies to discuss additional use cases, data governance needs, and other security requirements. It is also inviting nonprofit, healthcare, philanthropic, and private-sector organizations to join the consortium as sponsors—the consortium’s website notes that such participants receive access to meetings, updates, consultations, and opportunities to deliver input around the data.
“The advisory network was set up to say, ‘We don’t want this to be exclusive to jurisdictions and just those two private entities, because other partners could benefit too,’” Layden said. “We wanted a way in which others who are interested and see the value of this to be active participants, whether they are associations, whether they are hospitals and health systems, whether they are private entities that see the value of this type of model.”
Public-health data has been curtailed under the Trump administration: According to one report in January, the Centers for Disease Control, a federal agency, has ceased updating half of its databases. Last October, Democratic state governors convened its own group to coordinate public-health responses due to what it described as a less transparent Department of Health and Human Services (DHS), which operates under the CDC.
But Layden said that ASTHO’s own group would be essential regardless. “I think [changes at DHS] perhaps provides some urgency in the sense of—anytime there’s something where people are worried about changes in access or use of data,” she said. “But in reality, these types of models are something that we in public health have needed to do for some time.”
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