In collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the UCSF Health Informatics hub recently conducted three PowerBI trainings focused on public health surveillance in Egypt and Jordan.

These in-person trainings equipped IT and surveillance officers from Ministries of Health in Jordan and Egypt, the Jordan CDC, and the Jordan Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship with the ability to analyze, visualize and share insights from complex datasets related to global health security (GHS). In just five days, participants were able to build a dashboard and understand and use the data, earning “PowerBI developer” certificates.

In Egypt, the workshop focused on event-based surveillance (EBS) dashboards to accelerate identification and response of potential health threats. Small groups of participants worked together to design dashboards for the MOH and surveillance rapid response teams to use. Additionally, some dashboards focused on influenza and indicator-based surveillance (IBS). In Jordan, the trainings focused on dashboards based on a One Health(1) national data warehouse and EBS.

All workshops included time for participants to work on their dashboards, practice their skills and collaborate with others. A follow-up session is scheduled after the workshop to review progress and share feedback. The Hub continues to strengthen public health intelligence capacity across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region through trainings, hackathons, ongoing technical assistance, and curriculum development.

1. One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.