Reinforcing Austrian Integrated Surveillance and Epidemiology
RAISE
Initial situation/scientific issue
AGES has been responsible for the epidemiological surveillance of communicable diseases since 2002. As in many other countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted gaps and weaknesses in national surveillance in Austria. There is a need for improvement from data collection to automated processing and communication between all responsible authorities. This limits the ability to promptly identify outbreaks, monitor trends and develop appropriate public health measures in good time. RAISE evaluates and improves current methods and closes surveillance gaps with new, sustainable tools.
Project description/methodology
The main objectives of the project are capacity development for public health staff (training, networking), digitalisation, automated surveillance of respiratory infections in all care areas (population, primary care, hospital) and networked databases for human and animal health.
AGES benefits from the fact that it has been operating in line with the One Health concept since it was founded. Human and animal health are brought together under one roof, as are food security and safety in agriculture. As part of the RAISE project, data is brought together more effectively and interpreted jointly. The result is a better overall picture of the development of vectors (mosquito and tick monitoring), the spread of zoonoses and the effectiveness of measures to combat them. Integrated surveillance allows earlier warning and a more appropriate response in all areas.
Better data quality in the area of public health requires standardised, good training for all those involved. AGES will provide a targeted training programme to enable all stakeholders to collect and document data in a quality-assured and standardised manner: Further training, teaching materials, tools for ongoing collaboration. At the same time, the necessary IT systems and platforms are being further developed (user interface, epidemiological parameters, AI, etc.). A citizen science pilot project, comparable to GrippeWeb in Germany, is to be developed as a roadmap to collect data directly from the population and supplement existing surveillance data. All activities together will contribute to the long-term and sustainable expansion and digitalisation of the Austrian surveillance system under the One Health premise so that Austria is better prepared for future outbreaks.
