Building PHI Capacity
Training and capacity building are essential components of strengthening surveillance systems and improving global preparedness to more effectively and efficiently detect, assess, communicate, and act on potential public health emergencies. In this session, we'll hear from stakeholders involved in developing comprehensive surveillance and training frameworks to learn how the broader PHI capacity building frameworks are being developed and how event-based surveillance is being integrated.
Building surveillance and early warning and response capacities: the WHE surveillance strategy
Karl Schenkel, Epidemiologist, World Health Organization
Surveillance is a cross-cutting Public Health activity with multiple stakeholders at country-level, partner organisations and across WHO. Surveillance activities include (among others) indicator-based reporting through vertical disease programs or mandatory notifiable disease legislation, but also early warning and response (EWAR) activities integrating EBS and IBS in peacetime and during emergencies. The landscape of surveillance activities and stakeholders is highly fragmented. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) has been tasked to develop a surveillance strategy to propose harmonized and timelier information sharing across headquarters, regional and country level. The findings of an exhaustive surveillance landscaping analysis and proposed solutions and investment cases will be presented.
Strengthening event-based surveillance in the African region
Christie Hercik, Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
The US CDC Global Disease Detection Operations Center (GDDOC) is collaborating with a few partner countries across the African region to enhance internet-based event-based surveillance (EBS) for the purpose of early detection and response to health threats. Through technical assessment of alert and response operations (ARO), and hands-on training and linking EBS to existing surveillance frameworks, GDDOC is committed to strengthening epidemic intelligence among WHO Member States. Proposed activities will better align with target countries with the International Health Regulations (IHR; 2005) core capacity requirements, and the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) surveillance assessment criteria (D.2.1).
Modernizing FETPs to enhance global preparedness and response: The role of TEPHIConnect and the TEPHINET Learning Program
Angela Hilmers, Senior Associate Director for Science, Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET)
In this presentation TEPHINET will discuss initiatives to enhance global preparedness and response through the establishment of global learning technical guidelines to modernize the FETP curricula and opportunities of continuous education for FETP alumni.