Big Data Analytics Platform Helps Chicago Track COVID-19 Cases

December 30, 2020 - The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and Rush University Medical Center (RMUC) recently launched a big data analytics tool that offers information about COVID-19 testing, cases, and trends.

The tool is a comprehensive data hub designed to centralize health information to help fight COVID-19. The initiative is a new approach to data reporting and informatics gathering and provides CDPH with a comprehensive system for tracking COVID-19 cases, while also enhancing the ability to mitigate risk throughout the city of Chicago.

“The ongoing threat to public health that COVID-19 presents has inspired a new level of collaboration between the Chicago’s many healthcare organizations,” said CDPH Commissioner Allison Arwady, MD.

“As a result, we have done in a few months what would have taken years to do before. By streamlining reporting of common data sets, we have a much better understanding of which hospitals are treating COVID-19 patients and how it is spreading across different groups.”

The tool, now fully operational, pulls CDPH-mandated data from into a common platform. All 28 Chicagoland hospitals are completing and inputting reports, which include three datasets: Electronic lab reporting, which tracks every COVID-19 test administered in Chicago; consolidated clinical document architecture, which pulls data from Epic-enabled sites; and the COVID-19 capacity model, which monitors hospital bed counts across the city in near real time.

“Not only does this help us to better understand the spread, it also empowers us to better match patients with the places that can most effectively treat them,” said Dr. Omar Lateef, CEO of RUMC, where the health information will be stored and analyzed for CDPH. “Not all hospitals have the same resources and being better able to match patients with clinical capabilities will save lives.”

The tool can significantly improve clinical decision-making during the ongoing healthcare crisis, and help hospitals and health systems get ahead of surges in patients and cases.

“We were fortunate to be able to pull together a group of national leaders, including the primary author of HIPAA, to develop a robust platform that protects health records while informing decision-making with science. To date, we have collected more than 70,000 unique results that are already giving us never before available insights that we hope will prove invaluable,” said Dr. Nicholas Soulakis, CDPH Chief Public Health Informatics Adviser.

“Thanks to the healthcare heroes across our community, as well as state and local leadership in flattening the curve, Chicago hospitals have not yet become overwhelmed. However, as we forecast out and plan for other possible COVID-19 surges, this tool will tell us immediately how taxed the Chicago hospital network is and help guide our response.”

The platform has multiple pathways to share critical data and inform hospital and civic leaders through a core set of dashboards. Researchers will use that data to look at various trends, including health equity and the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on communities of color, while also assessing the comorbidity and age distribution differences within them.

“We are currently working to secure a federal grant that will help to further enhance reporting and ultimately inform how a potential vaccine could lead to immunization registries, like those that exist for children,” said Dr. Bala Hota, RUMC Chief Analytics Officer.

“Ultimately, it is our hope that this tool will help us identify new hot spots or even new syndromes. It also has the potential to be an infrastructure model that helps us better combat chronic disease and major causes of morbidity.” 

Leaders expect that this tool will benefit the healthcare system long after the pandemic has subsided.

 “The value of this tool will go far beyond COVID-19,” said Arwady. “The collaboration that went into creating this will have a long-lasting effect, as it will be used as the foundation for integrating data rapidly for future waves of new pandemic responses.”