COVID-19 is now the deadliest documented pandemic in American history. Our public health response has been fragmented, reactive, and slow to adjust to rapidly changing conditions, even leaving pandemics aside. Basic health disparities across our neighborhoods are often chronic conditions with neither diagnoses nor plans of care.     

In line with calls for Public Health 3.0 (DeSalvo, 2016), the RegLab is investing in modernizing the traditional public health toolkit. The unprecedented volume of data now available to decision-makers, combined with novel models of co-production between academic and public health officials, can pave the way for a more agile, intelligent, and collaborative public health infrastructure. RegLab has collaborated on multiple strategic initiatives with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, the first jurisdiction along with sister counties to issue a shelter-in-place order in the country, to leverage data to improve programs or policies designed to mitigate the harms of COVID-19. RegLab is also leveraging rich, nation-wide electronic health record datasets to illuminate previous blindspots in public health research and practice. What techniques can help public health departments better allocate scarce resources? How can we develop more effective and equitable mechanisms for disease surveillance, preventative health, and healthcare delivery? How do we build a public health infrastructure that is able to cope with future risks, wherever they may emerge, with a focus on the most vulnerable communities?