CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new international public health initiative at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign is bringing students together to work on data-information projects that will help public health agencies with COVID-19-related data analysis.
The Center for Health Informatics Mobilizing Experts in Illinois is a project of the Center for Health Informatics, in collaboration with the World Health Organization / Pan-American Health Organization. The project matches students with agencies that have specific technical or informational needs.
“We have lot of students at Illinois, both undergraduate and graduate, who have skills that are extremely valuable right now to public health agencies,” said Ian Brooks, the director of the Center for Health Informatics and a research scientist in the School of Information Sciences.
“Public health agencies want their COVID-19 response to be driven by data but are often limited by their in-house data science capacity. CHIME in Illinois will help them overcome these limitations with faculty-led student teams,” he said.
Brooks began developing the program – modeling it after the Illinois Business Consulting program that matches business students with companies that need support on short-term projects – to work with countries and their ministries of health through the WHO.
“A couple of years ago, I was doing a consulting visit on behalf of the WHO/PAHO and I met with the ministry of health of a small island country. We were discussing a project challenge they had and it occurred to me that I could walk into Siebel Center and pick a random computer science student who could solve that problem within a day. The ministry of health didn’t have enough people with the right skills to do that,” Brooks said.
The COVID-19 pandemic put the initiative on fast-forward.
Its projects can involve analysis of social media discussions, epidemiology data visualization and mapping, data management and basic modeling. There are eight projects underway involving 30 students. Most of the students are in information sciences, but there also are students from computer science, the Gies College of Business and the College of Applied Health Sciences. Brooks said students from many disciplines and with a variety of skills are needed, including language skills, cultural knowledge, and public health and medical expertise, in addition to information science and computer science.
“I know a lot of students that have needed skills they’d like to be able to contribute and feel like they’re helping with the response, but they don’t really know what they can do to help. This program focuses that energy,” he said.
Students will learn more than just the technical aspects of a project. They’ll also get real-world, hands-on experience seeing how a project is managed and what happens when unexpected problems arise, Brooks said.
“It really is the experiential learning mode. If we can give our students that kind of experience and opportunity while providing an extremely valuable, welcome service for public health agencies that are often underfunded and understaffed, it’s a win-win,” he said.
Marcelo D'Agostino, a WHO/PAHO senior advisor, agreed: “These students have the expertise we don’t have, and being under the leadership of Dr. Brooks provides an additional value, due to his knowledge of PAHO and our work with the countries of the Americas.”
Most of the projects are through the WHO/PAHO, including one that is analyzing information systems in 48 countries and territories throughout the Americas and examining how to improve the flow of information so decision-makers at the national level have the data they need to make informed decisions, Brooks said.
Other projects are looking at posts on social media about the use of masks and whether information from ministries of health is consistent with what is shared by the public; creating a tool to increase access to international COVID-19-related health metrics; developing COVID-19 fact sheets to share information on various topics; and surveying patients about the effects of COVID-19 on taste, smell and flavor.
CHIME in Illinois is working with the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District on one project, and Brooks is talking with C-UPHD administrator Julie Pryde about expanding to work with other public health districts in the area.
“A lot of components go into understanding where a country is with the disease, what is working and what is not working,” Brooks said. “A lot of the public-health response is communication. It’s getting people to wear masks, social distance, wash hands. The clinical information is relatively easy to get. It’s harder to know what the public is sharing, and what public health needs to say to get people to be more responsive.”
“Pulling all this information together and making sense of it in a timely enough manner to be useful is challenging,” he said. “Most public health agencies are focused on the clinical data at this point – where the active cases are and how many people are hospitalized. Using modeling to have an idea where they need to put resources is important.”
He sees the potential to expand the CHIME initiative beyond the U. of I.
“I’m absolutely convinced this concept can have a huge impact,” Brooks said.
Students who want to volunteer for a project, as well as public health agencies and other organizations that want to submit a project proposal, can do so by visiting the CHIME in Illinois website.