Digital adaptation kit for birth defects surveillance: operational requirements for implementing WHO recommendations in digital systems 

Overview

Congenital anomalies, also known as birth defects, are structural or functional abnormalities, including metabolic disorders, that are present at birth. Surveillance of these conditions is critical so that countries can prioritize, plan and provide prevention, treatment and support services.

Digital Adaptation Kits (DAKs) are part of WHO’s SMART guidelines initiative, which empowers countries to integrate recommended clinical and public health practices, and data recommendations into digital systems. https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/reproductive-health/digital-health/who-dak.pdf

This DAK:

• Ensures adherence to the Birth defects surveillance: A manual for programme managers, 2nd Edition. Information detailed in this DAK reflects generic workflow processes and data.
• Enables health programme leads and digital health teams (including software developers) to have a joint understanding of the health content within the digital system.
• Provides a starting point of the core data elements and indicator calculation that should be included for birth defects surveillance.

The outputs of this DAK are generic and will need to be contextualized to local policies and requirements.