Respiratory virus surveillance in the post-pandemic era: challenges and opportunities for dashboard-based public health action

Abstract

Respiratory pathogen surveillance dashboards surged during the COVID-19 pandemic and have remained widely used tools for real-time data visualization in public health. While these dashboards offer timely, actionable insights for monitoring trends and decision-making, their rapid expansion has also highlighted persistent challenges related to governance, data accessibility, standardization, and sustainability. To explore these issues in depth, the Center of Excellence for Respiratory Pathogens (CERP) hosted a two-day workshop in Lyon, France. Experts representing a range of respiratory pathogen surveillance initiatives convened to share experiences, highlight successes, and discuss ongoing challenges. Key themes included the need for improved data quality, transparency, and standardization; sustainable IT infrastructure and staffing; greater access to underlying data; and alignment between dashboard objectives and user needs. Participants emphasized that broader governance and collaboration challenges strongly impact dashboard performance and interoperability. This report summarizes the valuable insights and subsequent actionable recommendations that emerged from the workshop, offering guidance to both developers and users of respiratory pathogen (or disease burden) dashboards. It aims to support the development of a more integrated, effective, and sustainable global respiratory surveillance ecosystem.