WHO and CDC to launch informatics fellowship for eastern Europe and central Asia

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3 November 2022 WHO News release

WHO/Europe; the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Office; Georgia’s National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC); and the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) of the University of Washington, have come together to launch a new fellowship in countries of eastern Europe and central Asia, to improve the use of data science in public health.

Over the last few years, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital health technologies to benefit patients but has also highlighted the need for a well-trained digital health workforce that understands health informatics and data system requirements to support public health functions.

“We have learned a lot from this pandemic. In brief, our inability to effectively leverage the volume and different types of data available to us has been a notable shortcoming in the response to date. There are several barriers related to this, but one of the most important is the deficiency of trained people to manage and use these data. At WHO we are convinced that this training programme will help to bridge that gap in the European Region, and we are extremely grateful for this partnership with the US CDC to move this forward,” shared Dr David Novillo-Ortiz, Regional Adviser for Data and Digital Health at WHO/Europe, during a brainstorming workshop held in Tbilisi, Georgia, in September, which brought together regional and bilateral stakeholders.

Ms. Natia Skhvitaridze, Global Public Health Advisor for the Georgia National Center for Disease Control, noted: “Proper data management for improving the public health response to current and future challenges comes with an obligation to innovate and update the national approach to public health data science. … The introduction of this modern programme will be the basis for creating a skilled workforce in health data science.”

The fellowship programme

Through 3 distinct tracks, the programme aims to support future technical leaders, executive leadership, and mid-career public health officials. The overall objectives of the fellowship are to strengthen:

leadership – establishing champions for data science;
capacity – establishing a competency-based tiered training programme for data scientists and leaders;
public health services – applying data science to strengthen core public health functions and address priority population challenges.

“We are extremely excited about this opportunity for the Kyrgyz Republic and the central Asia region. The need for efficient and timely information systems has never been greater or more apparent. … Ensuring the availability of such qualified informaticians and data-scientist, through applied programmes such as this, will determine the level of success that we will have to be able to collect, manage and utilize health data at the individual and public levels for better health outcomes,” shared Dr Patrick Nadol, CDC Regional Program Director for HIV/AIDS and TB.

Over the course of the workshop, attendees developed a competency framework for the fellowship, including the identification of 68 competencies across 10 developmental domains.

Mr Durbek Aliyev, Deputy Chief Executive Officer for IT-Med at the Uzbekistan Ministry of Health, who attended the workshop, stated: “I think it’s only the beginning. The hardest part of this programme is the implementation. We put forward an ambitious plan, and I believe if it’s implemented correctly, it would be the most helpful programme to our region”.

Next steps

An applied learning model, with fellows undertaking field projects with supervision and mentorship provided by ministries of health, WHO/Europe, the CDC, the University of Washington and other technical partners, was also fully endorsed by all stakeholders.

In the coming weeks, a formal steering committee will be established to guide the continued development of the fellowship curriculum. Technical working groups will be established to further institutionalize a participatory approach, develop strategies to engage academic institutions across the region, and consider the long-term sustainability of this workforce programme.

Through this powerful collaboration, WHO/Europe aims to enhance country capacities to better govern digital transformation in the health sector and advance digital health literacy. This is a key objective of the recently adopted “Regional digital health action plan for the WHO European Region 2023–2030”, which seeks to improve people’s health and well-being through digital technologies.