‘Better Data Doesn’t Just Save Money; It Saves Lives’

Maria Cervania is a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives, representing the state’s 41st district, and serves on the Health House Standing Committee. An epidemiologist by training, Cervania has served as a public health educator, advocate, and practitioner over the course of her career, and knows firsthand how public health data can help save lives and money.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Courtesy of Maria Cervania

Q: You are an epidemiologist by training. How did you get into politics?

A: I’ve always been interested in politics, even as a young kid. When I moved to Cary, North Carolina, in 2014, my neighborhood wanted a traffic light installed; the neighborhood worked for five years and we still didn’t get the light. That small bit of municipal politics made me realize I had to work from the inside to get things done for my community.

Q: So, transitioning from municipal politics to public health policy: What’s the value of public health and public health data?

A: We have to make it clearer to people that public health is part of their daily lives—how clean your water is (if it’s even available) or what it means if nobody picks up your trash. I’m on an energy and public utility committee in the North Carolina House of Representatives, so I get to tell stories about the data in wastewater, and how we can get warnings about a lot of different diseases from our water reclamation systems. People are fascinated by that.

Q: How did your state use data to serve North Carolinians during the COVID-19 pandemic?

A: I truly believe we had the best COVID response of the entire country. Our online COVID dashboard, which provided easy-to-understand visual displays of pandemic-related data, was very strong. It enabled us to provide data that the public and local officials could understand, such as where in the state rates were higher and where more attention was needed.

Q: Other than pandemics, what other public health issues would benefit from more, better data?

A: During the pandemic, we noticed a rise in sexually transmitted diseases in younger people—as well as seniors living in nursing homes. But because not every county was collecting the data the same way, it wasn’t clear what action the county commissions and state legislature could take to address the problem. Opioids are another example. Fentanyl in particular is causing untold damage in our state, but we’re not collecting enough data to understand the scale of the problem, how it has changed over the years, or how to respond to it. And across all these issues, we need more detailed data on race and ethnicity.

Q: Why? What’s the value of collecting data on race and ethnicity?

A: Communities are different, and they have different health needs. We need to recognize and understand the intricacies of communities at different levels and collect data so that we can design more tailored, more effective public health programs, and deliver them in relevant languages.

Q: Most data that public health agencies need comes from health care providers, but a lot of these providers still send the data by fax or even phone. What can be done to change that, so that health care providers share more data electronically?

A: It’s a matter of making the costs come down. Providers understand the value of data; they tell me that, to provide the best health care for their patients, they need to know their whole story. And if they can be part of a data-sharing network such as a health information exchange, they want to be on board with that if the costs can work. But they—particularly smaller practices—often express that they can’t afford electronic health record systems. They’re so committed to providing the best health care possible, and we need to find an avenue to make this happen.

Q: What do you think North Carolina can do to modernize its public health data infrastructure? 

A: I want us to invest more money in public health, from workforce to systems. We need to have good information and particularly good data to really be efficient in how we provide services; I think investment in tech and systems and data will save us so much in the long run.

Q: So how do you talk to your fellow legislators about the importance of data modernization?

A: I emphasize the savings. But better data doesn’t just save money; it saves lives. I also say that public health is about caring for each other, and making sure we can help our neighbors be as healthy as they can be, both in their physical and mental well-being. Overall, if we’re taking care of each other in that way, we are all going to be better off.