South Africa has one of the highest incidence rates of TB globally. Surveillance is a key component of the control program to ensure that the epidemiology of the disease is understood and effective strategies are implemented. In addition it is important to assess programmatic impact of interventions introduced or identify further needs.
South Africa has 3 electronic systems that are important sources of data: the Electronic TB Register (ETR), Electronic Drug Resistance Register (EDR) and the Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) laboratory data. However, these systems need to be further improved to ensure that a robust system is available. In addition, merger of these databases are important to ensure that important gaps between diagnosis and treatment are monitored and closed.
The National Department of Health (TB cluster) and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (Centre for TB) have established a collaborative initiative to address these needs. Thus far progress has been made in developing the CDW into a surveillance data source for TB. In addition the EDR which is housed as a single database has been further cleaned and de-duplicated as part of this initiative. Recently the CDW and EDR have been electronically linked and a field assessment of the data systems linkage is being evaluated. The findings will assist in improving the linkage further.
However, the component that is outstanding is the ETR data which needs to be harmonised, cleaned and de-duplicated. The challenge with the ETR is that it has been a fragmented system that has evolved over time and this has resulted in changes which have resulted in different datasets that have proven difficult to harmonise primarily due to the lack of a dedicated small team to focus on this task. This component needs to be completed in parallel with the other tasks to ensure that progress made on the other components are not delayed.
The goal is to ensure that the 3 electronic systems used by the TB programme in South Africa as important sources of data are robust and could be linked: the Electronic TB Register (ETR), Electronic Drug Resistance Register (EDR) and the Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) laboratory data. The completion of the tasks below is aimed at facilitating the merging of these databases and is important to ensure that critical gaps between case findings, diagnosis, linkages to care and treatment are adequately monitored.
The consultant is expected to work with the Research Information Monitoring Evaluation and Surveillance (RIMES) directorate of the National TB programme (NTP), National Institute for Communicable Diseases (Centre for TB) and WHO in carrying out the following specific tasks:
The approach will include but not limited to:
The task is expected to start immediately after finalization of contract and run for not more than six weeks; the six weeks can be distributed over a maximum of six months because of the nature of the tasks involved.
Interested service providers must submit to “afwcozahr@who.int”
Curriculum Vitaes detailing previous related experience.
The Closing date for the application is 30 September, 2014. Late applications will not be considered. Correspondence will be limited to the selected candidates only.
The National Department of Health (NDOH) retains the full ownership of the data that will be used for this project and all the products of the project. NDOH rules and regulations on data management must be adhered to in implementing this project. Clarity will be provided on data management by the NDOH at the inception meeting of the successful service provider.
Any further technical information regarding the assignment can be obtained by contacting Dr Sanni Babatunde (sannib@who.int)
WHO reserves the right NOT to select any service provider.
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