The response of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has accel­er­at­ed the dig­i­tal shift in pub­lic health infor­ma­tion sys­tems around the world. How­ev­er, at the start of the pan­dem­ic, Quebec’s pub­lic health infor­ma­tion sys­tems were not pre­pared to respond to a cri­sis like this one. Prob­lems relat­ed to the inte­gra­tion and inter­op­er­abil­i­ty of sys­tems were highlighted.

The research car­ried out by Cité-ID, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with OBVIA, on the use of dig­i­tal tools by pub­lic health in Que­bec and by region­al offices has made it pos­si­ble to under­stand the com­plex­i­ty of the infor­ma­tion sys­tem of pub­lic health in Que­bec and iden­ti­fy the tech­no­log­i­cal and orga­ni­za­tion­al fac­tors that lim­it and facil­i­tate the resilience of the sys­tem. Due to the weak­ness­es of the pub­lic health infor­ma­tion sys­tem, sev­er­al net­work play­ers have mobi­lized their capac­i­ty for inno­va­tion and adap­ta­tion to bet­ter man­age the cri­sis by devel­op­ing new tools. The inte­gra­tion and con­sol­i­da­tion of these infor­ma­tion sys­tems pose major chal­lenges for the future.

To view details of the research project, click here.