Feedback and dissemination of data

1
Feedback and dissemination of data

• netSPEAR foundation conference
• November 17th 19th 2003

2

• The principal objective of this network is to
  replace best guesses about the importance of
  pneumococcal disease and Hib in the region with
  estimates based on data - your data - to make
  sure vaccines for children are treated fairly.
• Who needs the information?
• Health policy makers
• Regional opinion leaders (eg. Senior doctors
  Public Health practitioners)
• Donor agencies
• All grades of health workers
• The public

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• What types of information are required?
• Estimates of invasive Pneumococcal and Hib
  disease burden in each hospital and country and
  the region (the commonness of these diseases and
  the number of deaths they cause).
• The prevalence of resistance to commonly used
  antibiotics - vaccines may help reduce the spread
  of antibiotic resistance.
• The serotype coverage of multi-valent conjugate
  pneumococcal vaccines as this will effect their
  likely value. (Pneumococci come in many slightly
  different forms not all of which are prevented by
  the new vaccines).

4
Information dissemination

• Dissemination will take place at multiple
• levels and in various modes.
• Dissemination via informal meetings
• Dissemination via formal meetings
• Meetings of clinicians, microbiologists and
  public health physicians (e.g. Kenya Paediatric
  Association meeting).
• Regional scientific meetings (e.g. African Health
  Sciences Congress)
• International scientific meetings.
• Dissemination via annual netSPEAR meetings

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• Representation at the annual netSPEAR meeting
  will include
• The steering group members
• Sub-regional WHO collaborators
• GAVI representatives
• Two individuals from each of the directly
  supported surveillance sites
• Representatives of additional partner
  surveillance sites
• Representatives of UNICEF, DFID, CIDA, USAID
• Representatives from the Ministries of Health
  (Director of Medical Services, National EPI
  managers, Child Health departmental managers).

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• Who can use the data to present?
• The data belongs to the hospitals producing it,
  it is then shared with netSPEAR and with a wider
  audience.
• Each hospital can obviously use its own data and
  would be encouraged to present it when it has the
  chance.
• What about confidentiality?
• No data passed to netSPEAR will have any
  identifying labels (name / hospital number). The
  data is similar to any routine data such as the
  number of stillbirths or measles cases.

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• Dissemination via regional press and news media
• A press release will be prepared, prior to the
  netSPEAR meetings, by the steering group for
  distribution to newspapers, television and radio
  editors who will be invited to send journalists.
• Dissemination via publications
• netSPEAR will attempt to get the data published
  in accessible, appropriate publications (eg. East
  African Medical Journal)

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• Dissemination via Web site publication.
• The website will be hosted from the start of the
  project
• Target is to have surveillance data uploaded to
  the website within 60 days of the close of each
  surveillance month.
• Metatags will be used to market the site
• Will also be registered with the major search
  engine sites.
• Site statistics will be reviewed by the Data and
  Communications manager to monitor the
  accessibility of the site to the target audience.

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• Dissemination via a netSPEAR newsletter.
• A 2-4 pages PDF newsletter will be prepared with
  data and copy from the network manager and
  illustration and design from the data management
  and communications department of Wellcome
  Trust/KEMRI.
• This will be published 4 monthly and will be
  disseminated by e-mail to
• all netSPEAR members
• Health Ministry
• Multilateral/NGO
• Academic, clinical and public health personnel.
• It will also be downloadable from the website.

10

• Annual report to GAVI.
• The goals of the forthcoming year
• Appraisal of performance on targets for the last
  year will be summarised in an annual report
  prepared by the network manager and the steering
  group.
• Contain an account of expenses incurred by the
  project and projected costs for the coming year.
• Scientific publications.
• The network manager and research partners in the
  region together with worldwide collaborators will
  be encouraged to publish findings of the
  surveillance project in journals concerned with
  Pneumococcal disease, Vaccinology and Tropical
  Public Health.

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Publications may include

• Descriptions of the objectives, methods and
  interim results of surveillance
• May include the results of other allied academic
  activities e.g. quantification of pneumococcal
  disease burden using simple surveillance tools
  (e.g. clinical signs of ARI, radiographic
  pneumonia, pleocytosis in the CSF)
• Validation of these tools against total burden
  diagnosable with CSF and blood culture
  surveillance
• Serotype coverage of different conjugate vaccine
  formulations and biases introduced by reliance on
  CSF data
• Antibiotic resistance profiles and the utility of
  regional empiric treatment policies in the light
  of in vitro susceptibility data.