An online dashboard which pulls together data from several sources on the Covid-19 outbreak in Scotland to provide a picture of how the situation is developing, has been developed by a group of scientists from the Roslin Institute and the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH).
The data is updated daily and includes the number of cases, deaths and tests performed, presented as a series of graphs. The information is being utilised by the Scottish Government Covid-19 Advisory Group which has access to the platform.
As well as sharing information on the situation in Scotland, the COVID-19 Scotland platform also contains data on the global trajectory of the pandemic.
The dashboard has been put together by the Epidemiology, Economics and Risk Assessment research group (EERA), using data provided by the Scottish Government which has been gathered by Ian Watt of the Open Data Institute in Aberdeen and Chief Executive Officer of Code the City.
Professor Mark Bronsvoort, a research leader at both EERA and CTLGH commented: “The EERA team has used the data collated by Ian Watt to build visualisations that make it easier to see how the epidemic is progressing in different health boards across Scotland, as well as comparing with the other regions of the UK and globally.
He added: “The group have made the source code for the platform freely available and it is already being used by other groups.”
As well as holding a Personal Chair of Veterinary Epidemiology at the Roslin Institute Professor Bronsvoort co-leads the Health Genetics research programme at CTLGH with Phil Toye at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).
With funding from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and the Biological and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Health Genetics programme at CTLGH works to increase understanding and use of genetic and genomic tools to improve disease resistance and resilience of tropical livestock with the aim of improving livestock productivity in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs).
As part of this programme CTLGH has a number of research projects being conducted by EERA researchers at Roslin in collaboration with scientists at ILRI. More information about these projects can be found here
