DOH exec vows transparency of COVID-19 data

The Department of Health (DOH) is transparent with COVID-19 data and does not manipulate information, its chief epidemiologist vowed on Wednesday.

DOH Epidemiology Bureau director Dr. Alethea De Guzman said the public is free to analyze COVID-19 data, which is downloadable from the agency’s website. 

“We are uploading, on a daily basis, anonymized case line lists… it’s one way for the DOH to ensure [that] we’re not hiding anything. We’re transparent,” she said in an online forum hosted by consulting firm Blueprint.PH.

“If you see something wrong with the data, here’s the data drop. You can check it. Kung meron kayong nakitang (If you see) inconsistency, please report it to us. We’ll be more than happy to address it and to check,” she added.

De Guzman also acknowledged that the DOH’s data quality at the start of the pandemic was “poor” and attributed it to the varying capacities of epidemiology and surveillance units.

In May last year, experts from the University of the Philippines pointed out errors and inconsistencies in COVID-19 data released by the DOH. 

In July that same year, DOH data again came into question after the “time-based tagging” of recovered cases led to over 40,000 new recoveries in a single day. 

Earlier this year, Marikina Representative Stella Quimbo also asked the DOH if it “engineers” case data after a leak. 

De Guzman said she stands by the integrity of DOH data.

“Hindi 'yan ginalaw, hindi 'yan minanipulate. Kung meron akong 200 deaths, I will report those 200 deaths. Kung meron akong 13,000 cases, we’ll report 13,000 cases. We’ve never hid anything from the public,” she stressed.

(That data is not touched, not manipulated. If I have 200 deaths, I will report those 200 deaths. If I have 13,000 cases, we’ll report 13,000 cases. We’ve never hid anything from the public.)

But De Guzman still stressed the need for a strong data governance that will facilitate efficient management of COVID-19 cases, and strengthen linkages between the national and local government units in managing cases.

“Digital innovations and solutions minimize processing time of data, minimize errors, while the electronic medical records can provide data on vaccines, and the adverse events following immunization,” she said.

According to De Guzman, a unified data dashboard of the COVID-19 provides health experts more time to interpret data, and come up with timely and relevant analysis.

Another guest speaker at the forum, Manelle Cousart-Suyat, Industry Marketing Head for Healthcare of Globe Telecom's enterprise arm Globe Business, said public and private hospitals will benefit from the digital solutions and innovations by lowering cost of business and medical operations, and providing efficient and quality healthcare to patients at a lower cost.

She said digital solutions will also provide ease of work for doctors, nurses and medical staff who often face stretched hours of duty dealing with manual paper processes that result to outdated records, missing files and unaccounted billings.

“These digital tools will ease patients’ and staffs’ hospital processing journey by lessening the forms to fill out using integrated suite, for keeping medical records updated and secured through the Hospital Information System and cybersecurity, and digital payment availability,” said Suyat.

For his part, Dr. Erwin Alampay of the UP-National College of Public Administration and Governance said open and big data analytics can provide real-time situation analysis, contact tracing, and early timely diagnosis for early containment.

“Open and big data analytics in responding to Covid-19 can help securing public trust in government through better transparency and improved communication, and counter misinformation,” he said.

He said big data analytics also provide support to the government in identifying and addressing special vulnerability and needs of vulnerable groups by gathering disaggregated data.

The Philippines has logged 1,280,773 COVID-19 infections with 1,202,257 recoveries and 22,064 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon. — RSJ/MDM, GMA News