The value of collaborative surveillance as a practical approach to improving public health action is highlighted in a new report by the Pan-European Network for Disease Control (NDC). The study offers insights to support countries and institutions in strengthening surveillance systems across the WHO European Region.
Collaborative surveillance aims to enhance public health intelligence and decision-making by strengthening collaboration across sectors and integrating relevant data and expertise from public health, veterinary, environmental and other domains. It is increasingly seen as essential to strengthening health emergency preparedness, response and resilience. The report, “Operational considerations for collaborative surveillance”, brings together lessons from across the Region to help translate this concept into practice.
What helps collaborative surveillance work?
As countries continue to strengthen systems in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the face of evolving health threats, the report provides timely, practice-based reflections on what helps collaborative surveillance work in real settings.
Although collaborative surveillance is implemented in different ways across contexts, the working group identified 3 core elements that underpin its effective implementation: cross-sectoral and multipathogen system design and implementation; data utilization for timely risk assessment and public health action; and governance arrangements that support sustainability and accountability.
The findings also support more evidence-based decision-making, more efficient use of resources and greater accountability and transparency towards the public. Integrated data and joint risk assessment helped inform more targeted interventions, strengthen preparedness and improve coordination within and across countries.
Background
The report draws on 12 case studies voluntarily contributed by working group members from 7 countries: Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Türkiye and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. These case studies span a broad range of disease areas and settings, including communicable diseases, zoonotic and vector-borne infections, food- and water-borne outbreaks and emergency contexts such as earthquake response. Examples of collaborative surveillance already in use across the Region include One Health approaches bringing together human, animal and environmental health data; integrated reporting and risk assessment mechanisms; digital tools supporting real-time data exchange and analysis; and governance arrangements that enable coordination across institutions and sectors. These range from multipathogen platforms and event-based surveillance systems to targeted risk assessment for West Nile virus, avian influenza, COVID-19 and food-borne outbreaks.
The road ahead
As the Region continues to strengthen preparedness for future health threats, the report points to several areas for further attention, including scalability and flexibility of systems, stronger interoperability, long-term sustainability and more standardized data practices. Continued peer exchange and further documentation of country experiences will be important to deepen learning and support capacity-building in the years ahead.
“This report shows that collaborative surveillance is not just a conceptual ambition, but something that can be operationalized in practical ways across very different contexts. By bringing together experiences from across the Region, it highlights how stronger collaboration, better use of data and clearer governance arrangements can support more integrated and actionable public health intelligence,” said Flavia Riccardo, Coordinator, External Relations Office and Centre for International Affairs, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Italy, NDC Co-lead of the Collaborative Surveillance Working Group.
“One of the key messages from this work is that collaborative surveillance does not follow a single model. What matters is the ability to connect sectors, data and institutions in ways that support timely risk assessment and public health action. This publication reflects the value of peer exchange in helping countries learn from one another and strengthen preparedness in practical ways,” added Kassiani Mellou, Head of the Directorate of Data Management, General Directorate of Information Technology, Greek National Public Health Institute, NDC Co-lead of the Collaborative Surveillance Working Group.
The report’s publication marks an important milestone for the NDC and its working group. It reflects the collective efforts of experts from national public health institutions, partner organizations and WHO, while contributing to wider regional and global efforts to operationalize collaborative surveillance. The report is intended to support policy-makers, public health institutions and partners working to build more integrated, sustainable and actionable surveillance systems across the Region.