Workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation of Surveillance Systems with Emphasis on Influenza Sentinel Surveillance

CDC’s Influenza Division and the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) in partnership with the African Society of Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) and the Institut National d’Hygiene Publique (INHP), hosted the Workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation of Surveillance Systems with Emphasis on Influenza Sentinel Surveillance. The course was held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, October 12–16, 2015 at the Sofitel Abidjan Hotel Ivoire. The workshop was designed to provide cooperative agreement partners with tools, information, and technical assistance needed to systematically evaluate how well their surveillance systems are achieving their objectives. Countries used a minimum of three years’ worth of data for this course.

The workshop brought together 21 participants representing nine countries. Participating countries were assigned mentors from various agencies such as CDC, WHO HQ, and WHO AFRO. The workshop format included sharing and familiarizing participants with CDC and WHO tools to evaluate key attributes of surveillance systems such as: (i) data quality (including data completeness and accuracy), (ii) timeliness, (iii) representativeness, (iv) simplicity, (v) flexibility, (vi) acceptability and sustainability, (vii) stability and (viii) utility through a combination of presentations, group discussions, and one-to-one mentoring.

Participants learned how to develop indicators and data collection tools for each element of the evaluation framework. Mentors worked with the participants to develop a draft protocol for the evaluation of their surveillance systems. Some countries were able to go a step further and conduct a preliminary analysis of available data.  The workshop ended with a certificate ceremony and closing remarks from INHP, CDC and the Ministry of Health representatives. A follow up workshop is planned for March 2016.