Gesundheitsdaten als Helfer in der Pandemie

Description

Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of data-intensive research to contain health crises, says Mark Siebert in the Standpunkt. Data analysis can be applied in a variety of situations to provide useful insights. The quality of the data and clear communication with the public are crucial.
In addition to the tireless work of doctors and nurses during the pandemic, data-intensive research is playing an increasingly important role in the fight against Covid-19. Models, statistics and graphics are ubiquitous in traditional and social media. The popular campaign hashtag #flattenthecurve symbolizes the central public importance that data analysis now has.
In Germany, processed health data such as daily infection figures, local incidence values or reproduction figures collected and published by the Roland Koch Institute (RKI), but also data-intensive scientific studies, form the basis for political decisions. In the wake of the current increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, data-intensive research has once again become the focus of public debate.
High-quality data, analyzed with a clear goal in mind, provide a solid and transparent basis for social debate and policy decisions. In this context, three aspects are important, which show the potential benefits but also the limitations of data-intensive research: