EVALUATION OF A SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

conduct a surveillance system evaluation to evaluate the attributes of an existing surveillance system.

System Description

Public Health Importance

Describe the importance of the public health problem under surveillance in terms of frequency (incidence, prevalence, mortality rates), severity (disability, case fatality, hospitalizations), inequities associated with the health event, cost, preventability, and public interest.

Purpose and Objectives

Describe the purpose and objectives of the surveillance system, actual or planned uses for the data collected, and the health events/ illness case definitions used to identify cases. In addition, you may want to include a brief description of the system’s components (for example, the population under surveillance, how data are collected, reporting sources, data management and data analysis, privacy and confidentiality). Please provide a flowchart of the system.

Resources

Describe the monetary, personnel and other resources needed to operate the surveillance system of interest.

Evaluation Design

Describe the specific purpose of the evaluation. Also include the specific questions that the evaluation will answer and the proposed uses of the information generated. Determine the standards for assessing the performance of the system.

Usefulness

Describe the usefulness (e.g. value, practicality) of information generated by the surveillance system. Outline how the data can be used to improve public health in relation to the specific health event/illness. This section answers the questions of whether the data are helping users to detect changes in trends, magnitude of illness, and permit assessment of implemented control programs.

Attributes

Describe the surveillance system attributes in terms of simplicity, flexibility, data quality, acceptability, sensitivity, predictive value positive, representativeness, timeliness, and stability of the system. All attributes have to be examined, because all of the attributes are relevant to surveillance systems. If there is no available data on a specific attribute, please note this limitation in your report.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Summarize your findings based on the evaluation result and the credible evidence you collected. Consider the criteria that are most important for your system (e.g. is timeliness more important for your system. Propose applicable recommendations to strengthen the most important system attributes