BRUSHING aside doubts on its data collection and reporting systems, the Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said the issues raised by the University of the Philippines Covid-19 Pandemic Response Team pertain to just a “nominal percentage of the whole data set, and does not prejudice the overall interpretation of data and decision-making.”
The DOH statement read, “We assure the public that the issues raised are a nominal percentage of the whole data set, and does not prejudice the overall interpretation of data and decision making. Data is continuously rectified the moment we identify any issue, including but not limited to date formatting inconsistencies, case classification, and proper identification of residence.”
The observed discrepancies, the DOH stressed, have been resolved as early as April 26, as well as other inconsistencies communicated by private citizens through covidtracker@doh.gov.ph.
“We very much appreciate the UP Resilience Institute for raising their concerns,” the DOH added, referring to the UP Covid-19 Pandemic Response Team in its Policy Note No. 6, dated May 8, 2020. The DOH said it had already taken note of the data errors found in the April 24 and 25 data drops.
The statement of DOH came after a Facebook post by the UP Resilience Institute on Tuesday showed discrepancies in the agency’s official data on infected patients. Its comparison data drops on April 24 and 25, 2020, showed that: Cases have changed sex from male to female or vice-versa; Patients become either older or younger overnight; Cases were reclassified either to another city or a completely imaginary city and; a patient who reportedly died on April 24 is no longer dead the following day.
Nevertheless, the DOH assured that they remain committed to transparency, and welcomes feedback from the expert community.
Moving forward, the DOH said they will include more details on the specific rows that have changed from the previous day due to corrections.
The agency stressed that building and using high-quality data systems normally takes months of effort, while the crisis has demanded that the existing systems be improved and scaled out in real time.
“We are collaborating with a wide range of institutions, and we welcome other data engineers, data scientists and specialists willing to contribute to this effort, as this is a matter of national importance,” the statement said, adding that the DOH is grateful to the World Health Organization (WHO), epidemiologists of the University of the Philippines Manila College of Public Health, and Thinking Machines Data Science for their immense support in data validation and analysis.
The daily data drops, the DOH said, would not be possible without their guidance and expertise.
“We acknowledge that the system is not perfect but we continue to improve our data collection and reporting systems. DOH welcomes feedback as we respond to the information needs and the call for transparency from our fellow Filipinos in this national response against the Covid-19 pandemic,” the DOH added.
The DOH is currently rolling out a new digital epidemiological surveillance information system “COVIDKAYA” developed with the WHO Country Office.
This new system automates several data collection processes—something that is expected to minimize encoding errors.
Image credits: Roy Domingo
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