Research project using real-time COVID-19 data to track the pandemic in Scotland
New research is using real-time data to track the COVID-19 pandemic as it happens across Scotland. The Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE-II), funded by the Medical Research Council, Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, the Scottish Government and Health Data Research UK is analysing patient data to understand vaccine effectiveness and the impact that COVID-19 is having across Scotland.
Dr. Utkarsh Agrawal, a research fellow in health data science from St. Andrews School of Medicine, has been involved in the EAVE-II project and is one of the lead authors on a recently published paper on the project. Utkarsh, who has a keen interest in employing data science and machine learning to analyse diseases, has been involved in researching vaccine effectiveness using population level data for Scotland linked to vaccinations, COVID-19 infections, hospital admissions and deaths.
Working alongside a diverse team of researchers from across Scotland, Utkarsh has been using real-time data to track vaccine effectiveness for the past six months. For Utkarsh, this has been the most impactful part of working on the EAVE-II project, being able to see in real-time how the pandemic has unfolded in Scotland and how vaccine effectiveness has responded to the different waves.
Results from the EAVE II project have been shared with the Scottish and UK Governments to help inform decisions made throughout the pandemic. Being a part of this project and working to solve real-time problems during this pandemic has been a point of pride for Utkarsh and his work on the project continues as the team analyses the outcomes of serious cases of COVID-19 amongst vaccinated individuals.
Further information on the EAVE II study can be found here.
The latest publication on the study ‘COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths after BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccinations in 2·57 million people in Scotland (EAVE II): a prospective cohort study‘ is now available in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine