In the spring of 2020, as Covid-19 took hold around the world, Centers of Disease Control and Prevention director Mandy Cohen was the head of North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services. Among the challenges she and her team had to face was the antiquated state of data pervasive in public health and medicine. “One of our first things that we had to do was stop receiving lab data by fax machine,” Cohen shared at the Milken Institute 2024 Global Conference, where she spoke on Monday with the institute’s chairman Michael Milken.
“Yup. Embarrassing,” she continued, as the audience murmured in surprise. Early in the pandemic, Cohen acknowledged the lack of comprehensive data in her state as a major barrier to the response, as well as the lack of data interoperability. On stage at Milken, she pointed to that experience as she discussed her intention to improve the CDC’s data capabilities as director, a position she has held since July 2023.
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Author: Annalisa Merelli
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