June 23rd – Open Data and Covid-19 Webinar

International high-impact speakers from the areas of Health and Open Data discussed Open Data and Covid-19 on Tuesday, 23 June from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm.

This was a free event and was open to all. 

In this fifth session of the Open Data Impact Series, we asked the following high-impact speakers from the areas of Health and Open Data to a facilitated discussion on Open Data and COVID-19. There was also the opportunity to ask questions.

An overview of the Seminar including a video of the event is available here.

The Panel

• Karl Friston - Wellcome Principal Research Fellow and leading neuroscientist at University College London, currently working on COVID-19 modelling
• Neil O'Hare - Group Chief Information Officer (Children’s Health Ireland) and Professor of Health Informatics, UCD
• Jeanne Holm - Senior Tech Advisor at the City of Los Angeles and evangelist for Open Data

Agenda

10.30 - 12.00 Panel discussion on Open Data and Covid 19

12.00 - 12.30 Questions and answers

Open Data is a valuable resource that can help promote Health and Wellbeing. Open Data can be used to build new applications, enhance existing products or provide additional context for decision-making. The Health sector has embraced the Open Data initiative, with a large amount of data available.   The Pandemic has brought a new focus on our personal role in our own healthcare and that of our society with a new lens on Data. Data and Open Data are key ingredients to how health systems, societies and economies can recover from this pandemic.

Open Data in Ireland

The National Open Data Initiative in Ireland is led by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and is a key part of reform activities aiming to build more open, transparent and accountable public governance in Ireland. Over 10,000 datasets are available on the Open Data Portal from a wide range of Public Sector publishers, including the Central Statistics Office, the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Failte Ireland. 

Ireland has been highlighted as an Open Data Leader in Europe, ranking 1st for the third year running in the Open Data Maturity Report in terms of readiness and quality of data published, use, and impact.

The Open Data Strategy 2017-2022 builds on the substantial achievements of the Open Data Initiative and sets out a roadmap for the Initiative’s continued progress and development for the next five years.