INSIGHT Project: Strengthening Public Health Disease Surveillance

Posted on June 1, 2023July 10, 2024

The Integrated Next-generation Surveillance in Global Health: Translation to Action (INSIGHT to Action) project is a five-year cooperative agreement with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess and strengthen global public health surveillance systems using a One Health approach. The INSIGHT project leverages the capacity building strengths of I-TECH and the One Health disease surveillance expertise of the Center for One Health Research, with a model of engaging local institutions and experts in countries where it will be working in a shared partnership model.

In its first year, the INSIGHT project focused on an in depth assessment of the public health surveillance systems in Peru, in partnership with experts from University of Peru Cayetano Heredia. The completed assessment has now catalyzed the formation of a technical working group with representation across multiple government agencies that will work with other stakeholders including the World Bank at implementing measures to strengthen regional and country capacity to detect, respond to, control, and prevent emerging disease threats to health security.

The INSIGHT surveillance work in Latin America is also now expanding to involve Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia.

IDASH TRAINING PROGRAM

In 2023, the INSIGHT program launched the Informatics and Data Science for Health (IDASH) training program in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The goals of IDASH are to enhance capacity to create and use public health information systems that enable the capture, management, analysis, dissemination, and use of reliable, timely information to improve population-level health outcomes, as well as strengthen regional capacity to effectively respond to future global health challenges.

UKRAINE RECOVERY

Building on lessons learned from the Peru assessment work, the INSIGHT team is now working with the Ukraine Public Health Center on expanding sentinel and event based surveillance systems in Ukraine and strengthening the capacity of the public health system for emergency management of chemical biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. The INSIGHT team has organized a workshop in Poland bringing together key principals from the Ukraine ministry of health and local health departments to accelerate the pace of activities in support of public health in the country. INSIGHT is coordinating technical working groups on Early Warning and Response, Public Health Emergency Management, and Surveillance strengthening.

Public Health Surveillance

I-TECH works in collaboration with key stakeholders, including communities, government entities, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to strengthen and implement surveillance programs focused on emerging disease threats, HIV recent infection, birth defects surveillance, and hospital acquired infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America.

In Malawi, I-TECH has supported the implementation of an active hospital-based birth surveillance system at four high-volume facilities in Malawi since 2016, and beginning in 2019, I-TECH began implementing recent HIV infection surveillance in April 2019.

In 2022, as part of the Integrated Next-generation Surveillance in Global Health: Translation to Action (INSIGHT to Action) project, I-TECH, the Peruvian Ministry of Health, the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, and CDC collaborated on a situational analysis to assess areas for potential strengthening of the Peruvian disease surveillance systems. In 2023, the INSIGHT for Action project launched the Triple Border Disease Surveillance Strengthening Program.

In Kenya, the I-TECH Kenya office is working with CDC on implementing surveillance for hospital acquired infections (HAI) in low resource settings, with a focus on surgical site infection surveillance.

Program Highlights

INSIGHT Project: Strengthening Public Health Disease Surveillance

The Integrated Next-generation Surveillance in Global Health: Translation to Action (INSIGHT to Action) project is a five-year cooperative agreement with the ...
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Global Avian Flu Surveillance in Georgia

Migrating waterfowl from Asia, Africa, and Europe intersect in Georgia, which increases the potential for novel avian-origin influenzas to emerge ...
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COVID-19 Sentinel Surveillance in Malawi

Despite establishing COVID-19 monitoring measures within the existing routine national surveillance system and significant efforts to conduct testing, contact tracing, ...
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Triple Border Disease Surveillance in South America

Population movement, limited public health infrastructure, different country reporting systems, and poor environmental conditions increase incidence of certain infectious diseases ...
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HIV Drug Resistance Surveillance in Malawi

The World Health Organization recommends countries routinely implement nationally representative HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) surveys among people infected with HIV ...
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Global Health Security Agenda in Kenya

I-TECH Kenya’s Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA)-funded programs aim to advance the GHSA goals of preventing , detecting, and responding ...
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Field Epidemiology Training Program in Malawi

The Frontline Field Epidemiology Training Program (Frontline FETP) enhances the capacity of HIV and AIDS surveillance and strengthens health systems ...
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HIV Recency Surveillance in Malawi

The International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH), in collaboration with the Malawian Ministry of Health (MOH) and the ...
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Birth Defects Surveillance in Malawi

Malawi is one of first countries in Southeast Africa to respond to the World Health Organization’s call for robust birth ...
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National COVID-19 Emergency Response in Malawi

In collaboration with the Malawi Ministry of Health (MOH) and Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), I-TECH has ...
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Laboratory Systems

Medical laboratories are a critical component of quality health care and provide essential data for patient care and treatment, disease prevention and control, and public health policy development. I-TECH recognizes laboratory strengthening as a core component of its work. I-TECH’s Laboratory Systems Strengthening (LSS) team’s mission is to improve laboratory operations for optimal patient care and treatment, disease surveillance and response, biosecurity, and policy development. The LSS team fosters the development of sustainable laboratory systems and laboratory capacity in multiple countries throughout the world and comprises staff at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, as well as locally based staff. The team leverages partnerships within UW and with external collaborators globally, and engages directly with Ministries of Health and funders to accomplish mutual objectives.

In addition to the highlights below, I-TECH also has had laboratory programs in Cambodia, Côte d’Ivoire, Lao PDR, the Middle East and North Africa, and Zambia.

Program Highlights

Creating a Data Warehouse to Support COVID-19 Surveillance in Mauritius

The Digital Initiatives Group at I-TECH (DIGI) worked closely with the Mauritius Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) to implement a national laboratory information system (LIMS) using OpenELIS and expanded it to create a national-level data warehouse. The data warehouse captures all the information that has been input into OpenELIS ...
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Global Health Security Agenda in Kenya

I-TECH Kenya’s Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA)-funded programs aim to advance the GHSA goals of preventing , detecting, and responding to disease threats to health security. For the past 8 years, I-TECH Kenya has had a cooperative agreement with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to work closely ...
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Health Information Systems in Haiti

Electronic medical record (EMR) systems have the capacity to improve clinical decision making and quality of care at site level but can also be leveraged to make data-driven, population-level public health decisions. At the request of the MSPP ...
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HIS Leadership and Governance in Kenya

As a key member of the Kenya electronic medical record (EMR) system technical working group, I-TECH works to implement and standardize the EMR systems used in the management of national HIV and AIDS care and treatment data. Similar efforts have focused on ensuring that different electronic systems can communicate with ...
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Global Health Security

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of strong national disease surveillance systems that can detect disease threats in a timely fashion and provide actionable information for public health action. I-TECH focuses on preventing the likelihood of disease outbreaks, improving the efficiency and accuracy of the detection of communicable diseases, strengthening surveillance capacity for rapid and effective responses, and enhancing infection prevention and control practices to prevent the emergence and spread of pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, I-TECH provided technical assistance on the prevention and control of COVID-19 that ranges from training healthcare workers and facilities in infection prevention and control best practices to supporting the development of national policies and standard operating procedures. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I-TECH has worked with Ministries of Health and other local stakeholders to ensure that laboratories, health facilities, clinics, and providers are being trained in and implementing procedures to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.