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. 2022 Aug 29:8:20552076221121154.
doi: 10.1177/20552076221121154. eCollection 2022 Jan-Dec.

The experiences of 33 national COVID-19 dashboard teams during the first year of the pandemic in the World Health Organization European Region: A qualitative study

Erica Barbazza  1 , Damir Ivanković  1 , Karapet Davtyan  2 , Mircha Poldrugovac  1 , Zhamin Yelgezekova  1 , Claire Willmington  3 , Bernardo Meza-Torres  4   5 , Véronique L L C Bos  1 , Óscar Brito Fernandes  1   6 , Alexandru Rotar  1 , Sabina Nuti  3 , Milena Vainieri  3 , Fabrizio Carinci  7   8 , Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat  2 , Oliver Groene  9 , David Novillo-Ortiz  2 , Niek Klazinga  1 , Dionne Kringos  1
Affiliations

The experiences of 33 national COVID-19 dashboard teams during the first year of the pandemic in the World Health Organization European Region: A qualitative study

Erica Barbazza et al. Digit Health. .

Abstract

Background: Governments across the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region have prioritised dashboards for reporting COVID-19 data. The ubiquitous use of dashboards for public reporting is a novel phenomenon.

Objective: This study explores the development of COVID-19 dashboards during the first year of the pandemic and identifies common barriers, enablers and lessons from the experiences of teams responsible for their development.

Methods: We applied multiple methods to identify and recruit COVID-19 dashboard teams, using a purposive, quota sampling approach. Semi-structured group interviews were conducted from April to June 2021. Using elaborative coding and thematic analysis, we derived descriptive and explanatory themes from the interview data. A validation workshop was held with study participants in June 2021.

Results: Eighty informants participated, representing 33 national COVID-19 dashboard teams across the WHO European Region. Most dashboards were launched swiftly during the first months of the pandemic, February to May 2020. The urgency, intense workload, limited human resources, data and privacy constraints and public scrutiny were common challenges in the initial development stage. Themes related to barriers or enablers were identified, pertaining to the pre-pandemic context, pandemic itself, people and processes and software, data and users. Lessons emerged around the themes of simplicity, trust, partnership, software and data and change.

Conclusions: COVID-19 dashboards were developed in a learning-by-doing approach. The experiences of teams reveal that initial underpreparedness was offset by high-level political endorsement, the professionalism of teams, accelerated data improvements and immediate support with commercial software solutions. To leverage the full potential of dashboards for health data reporting, investments are needed at the team, national and pan-European levels.

Keywords: COVID-19; WHO European Region; dashboard; health information management; public health surveillance; public reporting of healthcare data.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. DNO, KD and NAM are staff members of the WHO. The authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article, and these do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy or views of the WHO.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Geographic representation of participating COVID-19 dashboard teams.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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