Informing Public Health Decision-Making with Multisource Collaborative Surveillance: A Step-by-Step Approach

Overview

Managing health security threats require critical decision-making despite many uncertainties. One of the key lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and other emergencies was that the decision-making needs to be informed by synthesis of multiple sources of information. Multisource collaborative surveillance (MSCS) is a systematic approach to using data from multiple sources to inform decision-making to manage health emergencies and public health threats. Key features include being decision oriented, multisource, collaborative, and systematic.

To facilitate the strengthening of MSCS, this manual proposes the six steps, creating an inclusive and participatory process engaging relevant stakeholders. The core process of MSCS strengthening is thinking backwards, starting from what decisions have to be made to manage emergencies (decision-making questions), and then moving on to defining what information needs to be generated (surveillance objectives) and identifying how best to generate required information, addressing duplication and fragmentation (surveillance approaches).