Intersectoral public health needs better data sharing

Prof. Luis Eugenio Portela Fernandes De Souza underscores the intersection of public health policy and socio-economic factors, illustrating the need for an integrated policy approach that transcends traditional sector boundaries. From a FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data perspective, his piece resonates with the principles of open science and the urgent requirement for more comprehensive data sharing within and beyond public health.

In fact, I would argue that the "Health for All Policies" principle can only be successfully implemented if we ensure that datasets from a wide range of fields become FAIR or at least FAIRer. Addressing social determinants to achieve health equity (as Prof. De Souza articulates) requires expansive datasets encompassing various socio-economic indicators. Therefore, ensuring that health data and data from a number of other key sectors, such as economics and education, are mutually interoperable (the I in FAIR) is crucial in realising his goal of a more sustainable and equitable development trajectory that places well-being at its core. However, we need to realise that this is much easier said (or written) then done, given that even within the healthcare sector lots of data is still not interoperable.

My analysis of open science during the COVID-19 pandemic [1] showed that open data was a significant factor contributing to the speed and efficacy of research during the crisis. Yet only a narrow majority of researchers surveyed were satisfied with the quality of available COVID data and many pointed out the need for improvement in terms of accessibility, quality, and legal frameworks for data sharing across borders. This underscores the fact that challenges towards more data sharing are not restricted to technical issues. For example, as highlighted in my recent analysis of trends in data privacy legislation in the global North [2], there is a shift towards more stringent, GDPR-aligned regulatory environments. These changes pose both challenges and opportunities for researchers and policymakers, especially in the realm of public health where cross-jurisdictional data sharing can be live saving (e.g. for smaller countries which rely on larger cohorts from bigger countries).

Policy makers and civil servants on the national and international level face pressures in sometimes opposing directions. Heightened geopolitical tensions has not made international cooperation easier either. However, we can learn from the slow but steady progress on Open Science – such as the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science [3] and its implementation - that transformative policies can still be implemented if we respect the needs and requirements of different countries and regions and do not impose one size fits all solutions. Thus, it is often said that “Open Science is a marathon and not a sprint”, and the same is likely to be the case for even broader intersectoral efforts in public health policy.

[1] Spichtinger, D. (2024). Open Science and COVID Research (v6.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10550343

[2] Spichtinger, D. (2024) New data protection and privacy laws have changed the regulatory landscape for researchers in the Global North. LSE Impact Blog https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2024/04/15/new-data-protection-and-privacy-laws-have-changed-the-regulatory-landscape-for-researchers-in-the-global-north/

[3] UNESCO (2021) UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379949

Copyright: © 2024 [author(s)]. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in Frontiers Policy Labs is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.