Zanzibar is accelerating notifiable-disease surveillance by linking Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) to the electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (eIDSR) system through ZHIL, transforming immediate alerts and weekly summaries from manual entry to automated, real-time reporting. This shift enables faster detection, cleaner data, and more timely action.
Objective: Establish a seamless, standards-based data exchange that strengthens timeliness, completeness, and accuracy in priority-disease reporting.
Leadership and Collaboration:
The effort was led by national health authorities with support from technical partners during a focused multi-day working session.
Key Alignments:
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Defined clear use cases and trigger points for data exchange from EMR to surveillance systems
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Agreed on a core clinical and epidemiologic data field set
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Standardized payload formats for both immediate alerts and weekly reporting, aligned to international health data standards
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Streamlined manual-automated overlaps to minimize duplication during the transition period
Way Forward:
A phased pilot will confirm standards, roles, and workflows, with progress tracked through routine reviews of timeliness, completeness, and data quality under national governance.