Training and Education

The International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005, provides a framework that supports efforts to improve global health security and requires that, member states develop and strengthen systems and capacity for disease surveillance and detection and response to public health threats. To contribute to this global agenda, an international collaborative comprising of personnel from the Health Protection Agency, West Midlands, United Kingdom (HPA); the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (AP) state, India and the Department of Community Medicine, Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital (RRMCH), Bangalore, Karnataka state, India was established with funding from the HPA Global Health Fund to deliver the objectives stated above.

Objective:

This project aimed to contribute to ongoing efforts to improve the capability and capacity to undertake disease surveillance and Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) activities in India. The main outcome measure was to empower a cadre of trainers through the inter-related streams of training & education to enhance knowledge and skills and the development of collaborative networks in the regions.

Public health surveillance practice is evolving rapidly. In the past decade we have witnessed the globalization of health threats, the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases, and an explosion of easily accessible new technologies. This fluid environment challenges the public health community, but also provides it with a unique and fertile environment to innovate and improve its practice. As surveillance is a core function of public health practice, public health practitioners need to be well equipped to achieve this function and address present and future public health challenges. We developed a five day training course that focused on the practical use of surveillance concepts and principles in public health. We are sharing findings on the development of the course and learner outcomes.

Objective

To enhance the knowledge and ability of public health practitioners to integrate and apply surveillance concepts, principles, and emerging tools into their practice.

Outbreak Investigations course consisted to a series of 8 online modules, covering: •Confirm that an outbreak is occurring and confirm diagnosis •Case definition •Descriptive Epidemiology •Hypothesis Generation •Analytic Epidemiology •Preliminary control and Prevention •Communication of findings •Establishing disease surveillance and monitoring The online modules were followed by live webinars, taught by the instructors who wrote each unit of the online webinar. Finally, select epidemiologists from Veterinary Services were invited to a 3-day classroom course, to collaborate with other team members and practice outbreak detection, surveillance and control. Three scenarios were created to highlight economic impact, severe consequences of an uncontrolled outbreak, OneHealth approach and the collaboration needed during a zoonotic disease outbreak.

Objective

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) created a new course in 2013 to meet needs of the veterinary epidemiologists within the Veterinary Services (VS) division. The objective of this training was to provide a standard framework to investigate animal disease outbreaks, and apply practical solutions. VS has expertise in animal surveillance, this training course demonstrated how to incorporate the fundamentals of surveillance into an outbreak scenario. The goal of course was to give epidemiologist skills and practice to more quickly and efficiently conduct an investigation, allow rapid identification of a cause, apply control measures, and limit economic and health impacts of a disease.

Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) is a World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) strategy for strengthening national public health surveillance and response systems in African countries. The strategy incorporates the International Health Regulations (2005) core capacities for public health surveillance and response systems. Since 2010, more than 30 countries have conducted at least one IDSR training workshop. Limited resources preclude conducting workshops in each of the 4,500 districts in all WHO-AFRO region. One solution is to implement an electronic version for IDSR training.

In collaboration with WHO-AFRO, we conducted a literature search to identify e-Learning best practices, and transformed the IDSR workshop training materials into electronic modules using measurable performance objectives, realistic examples, meaningful practices, and real time feedback to the learner. We also utilized an online learning management platform that lets course managers track learner progress and share supporting materials. The IDSR e-Learning course, available in English, French and Portuguese, aims to increase access to skills that support the prevent-detect-respond goal areas of the Global Health Security Agenda.

Objective

This presentation addresses the challenges of expanding district level surveillance training in Africa. We developed an e-Learning course and field tested the modules using an innovative approach to assess the feasibility of delivering electronic surveillance training.

Sharing public health (PH) data and practices among PH authorities enhances epidemiological capacities and expands situational awareness at multiple levels. Ease of data sharing through the BioSense application, now part of the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP), and the increased use of SyS nationwide have provided opportunities for region-level sharing of SyS data. In addition, there is a need to build workforce competence in SyS given powerful new information technology that can improve surveillance system capacities. Peer-to-peer learning builds the relationships and trust among individuals and organizations that are required for inter jurisdictional data sharing.

Objective

Promote interjurisdictional syndromic surveillance (SyS) data sharing practices with a training model that engages participants in collaborative learning.