What You Should Know:
– HCA Healthcare announces a partnership with Google Cloud and SADA on new COVID-19 open data platform named the COVID-19 National Response Portal to help communities respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
– The COVID-19 National Response Portal will help accelerate analysis and response by aggregating data on ICU bed and ventilator utilization, testing results, and total number of patient visits to America’s hospital systems.
Nashville, TN-based HCA Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, and Google Cloud jointly announced the COVID-19 National Response Portal, an open data platform built and operated by SADA. Running on Google Cloud, the platform is intended to promote data-sharing about the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is spreading in an effort to help hospitals and communities prepare and respond.
How the COVID-19 National Response Portal Works
The COVID-19 National Response Portal is intended to enable healthcare providers across the country to safely share and display anonymous, aggregated metrics from hospital systems into a single platform to show a complete and real-time view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data can be submitted each day from hospital systems across the United States and will be focused on metrics such as ICU bed supply and utilization; ventilator supply and utilization; total numbers of positive, negative, and pending COVID-19 test results; and total numbers of healthy patients who have been discharged.
The platform will also have the ability to leverage publicly available datasets, such as data on local shelter-in-place policies, and traffic or mobility patterns, to help shed light on how public behaviors and policies may impact the spread of COVID-19.
“COVID-19 presents a unique and significant challenge to healthcare providers, and collaboration and coordination is more important than ever to help ensure the best possible response,” said Dr. Edmund Jackson, HCA Healthcare’s chief data officer. “While COVID-19 has driven us apart physically, we will respond to it by coming together digitally. We are proud to work alongside Google Cloud to create a platform to help address this urgent public health challenge.”
Availability to Other Hospitals
HCA Healthcare, SADA, and Google Cloud are in the process of sharing additional details and seeking to onboard other hospitals. The platform is expected to go live to the public next week. Hospitals interested in learning more and submitting data should visit onboarding.nationalresponseportal.com.
Abundant Data Repository
HCA Healthcare uses data from approximately 35 million annual patient encounters to improve care through research and innovation. HCA Healthcare, which will provide statistical data from its 185 hospitals, structured in a manner to comply with HIPAA and other applicable restrictions, has invited groups representing approximately 4,000 hospitals across the country to join and share data on the platform.
