3.14 Data Dissemination

Expected time: 1.5 hours

Preparing Data for Dissemination

One of the most important steps in public health surveillance is the distribution or dissemination of relevant findings to appropriate audiences in a timely manner.

Possible audiences include partners, stakeholders, health-care providers, policy-makers and the public. It is important to remember who your target audiences are when preparing data for dissemination.

Other important points to keep in mind when creating an output for surveillance data are the timeline for dissemination, the usefulness of disseminated information, and the channel for data dissemination. It is important to remember the audiences to which these reports are addressed, and reports should be tailored accordingly. Examples of channels are written reports, the Internet, media, or a combination of these.

Activity 3.8

Ask participants to refer to Activity 3.8 in the Participant Workbook [457 KB, 21 Pages, Print Only]. Divide participants into small groups. Assign a target audience (groups 1–4 below) to each group.

Activity 3.9

Ask participants to refer to Activity 3.9 in the Participant Workbook. Divide participants into small groups. Assign a target audience (groups 1–4 below) to each group.

You are a group of paediatricians working in a large maternity facility in your country. You are seeing many babies (see Table 3.4) with congenital anomalies being born in the facility and the group thinks it would be good to provide information to your target audience (assigned), to interest them in supporting a surveillance programme. In the letter, you should include a description of how the data will be organized, what data will be collected and how it will be presented to make the case to your target audience.