A team from the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) recently visited Saint Lucia to provide technical support towards the successful operationalization of the Regional Integrated Early Warning Surveillance System (RIEWSS) in Saint Lucia.
The Regional Integrated Early Warning Surveillance System (RIEWSS) is a digital surveillance platform which integrates multiple sources of public health information via various surveillance systems designed to strengthen early detection and response to public health threats.
Technical Advisor for the CARPHA’s Pandemic Fund Project, Dr. Brian Armour spoke on how the surveillance system will allow for the use of data to ensure preparedness and response to public health threats. “In terms of the system that has been designed by CARPHA once countries use, is that it allows for multiple viewing for multiple surveillance areas on a single dashboard. So particularly, senior Heads of Departments, national public health leaders, they can see multiple events occurring at the same time which mimics real life and therefore, the decisions that can be made to protect the health of Saint Lucia, can be made on a more holistic and integrated information platform as per what CARPHA is bringing to this workshop.”
A diverse group of stakeholders including public health professionals, private health providers, vector control officers, and public and private laboratories were brought together to be oriented and trained on the functionality and sustainable use of the surveillance system.
Dr. Brian Armour spoke on the expectation of the technical mission for Saint Lucia. “What we would like to have is for national authorized users by the Ministry of Health to have access to these accounts so that once they login, they can view the relevant data that allows information to be converted as surveillance information for action. So that is the main thing that we hope to achieve in this mission and some of the data that enters into this platform are on other CARPHA-tailored software and therefore we are also sensitizing sub-groups in terms of those end capture software systems.”
Medical Surveillance Officer in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Dana DaCosta Gomez says this surveillance system is extremely important as it will play a great part in strengthening Saint Lucia’s health security and surveillance architecture. “This integrated approach gives new meaning to surveillance as we will no longer operate in silos, allowing us to connect these signals, recognize patterns earlier and support a faster and more coordinated response. For Saint Lucia, this particularly important as we strengthen our capacity to respond to a broad range of threats. The implementation of RIEWSS, therefore represents much more than introducing another digital platform. It is about us strengthening our national health security and architecture.”
CARPHA’s Executive Director, Dr. Lisa Indar welcomed the implementation of the Regional Integrated Early Warning Surveillance System (RIEWSS) in Saint Lucia and underscored the value of this system to strengthen integrated surveillance, early detection and coordinated response to public health threats in the region.
Saint Lucia is the second OECS Member State to implement the Regional Integrated Early Warning Surveillance System (RIEWSS).
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