Seven DCRI faculty participated in the June 24 event, which shared a range of Duke research projects and nationwide collaborative efforts geared toward addressing COVID-19 and racial and ethnic health disparities.
The Duke University School of Medicine’s Office of Data Science and Information Technology and Duke AI Health partnered to co-host a virtual symposium on Wednesday, June 24, focused on using data science to combat public health crises.
In her opening remarks, School of Medicine Dean Mary E. Klotman said that we are in the midst of two pandemics—COVID-19 and racism. The School of Medicine, of which the DCRI is part, will play an active role in driving solutions to both of these pandemics, and data science is one of the key tools that will be used. The symposium, titled “Public Health Crises of 2020: Battling COVID-19 and Disparities with Data,” featured seven DCRI faculty and data science experts from a range of other Duke entities such as Duke Forge and AI Health. The event also featured speakers external to the University, including two keynote speakers from the NC Department of Health and Human Services, as well as speakers from Change Healthcare and Amazon Web Services Data Exchange.
The event, which was delivered in rapid-fire five-minute talks, was hosted and moderated by the DCRI’s Michael Pencina, PhD, Vice Dean for Data Science & Information Technology (pictured left). Other DCRI speakers included Jessilyn Dunn, PhD; Benjamin Goldstein, PhD; Ricardo Henao, PhD; Keith Marsolo, PhD; Susanna Naggie, MD; and DCRI fellow Jedrek Wosik, MD.
Overarching themes of the half-day event included:
- There are major health disparities associated with COVID-19 and race and ethnicity—in North Carolina, Latinx communities are facing a disproportionate number of cases. Although the pandemic has spurred an increase in the use of telehealth, these services may also contribute to disparities as underserved populations may be less likely to use them. Some research efforts, such as those that use mobile health technology or wearables, also have the potential to widen these gaps, and researchers must proceed with caution.
- Teams across Duke have responded rapidly to the pandemic, and in many cases were able to launch efforts before COVID-19 numbers started to rise in North Carolina.
- There are collaborative efforts underway across Duke, as well as statewide and nationwide, to share and standardize data across different COVID-19 care settings and research projects.
- Machine learning algorithms and data science best practices will be crucial in understanding both COVID-19 and health disparities across a range of conditions.
Projects discussed at the symposium represented a wide variety of Duke departments and entities, including Duke Forge, Duke Crucible, the Department of Population Health Sciences, the Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, the Duke Center for Applied Genomics & Precision Medicine, the Duke Surgical Center for Outcomes Research, the Duke Institute for Health Innovation, and Duke AI Health.
“It’s inspiring to gather experts from across Duke, as well as public health experts from our state government and our industry partners, to explore these pressing problems,” Pencina said. “Data science has a critical role to play in combatting COVID-19 and racism, and it is essential that we work collaboratively with our communities, government agencies, and data partners.”
Recordings of the talks are available on the symposium’s webpage.