Economic Evaluations of Public Health Surveillance Systems: a Systematic Review.

Abstract

‘Public Health surveillance is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health data, closely integrated with the timely dissemination of these data both to those providing the data and to those who can apply the data to control and prevention programs’.1 Public health surveillance is therefore, closely linked to action as it provides accurate and validated information to local and national health authorities in order that these same authorities can implement appropriate prevention and control measures and health promotion strategies.2 This definition was set up several decades ago. Since then, the adoption of the revised International Health Regulations in 2005 has implemented new regulations such as national obligations to guarantee a set of core surveillance and response capacities to prevent international spread of disease irrespective of its origin (biological but also chemical or radio-nuclear sources).3 Furthermore, new diseases have emerged (H1N1pdm09, Middle East Coronavirus), some others have spread dramatically such Ebola virus disease in West Africa.4 In the context of globalisation, the concept of public health surveillance has evolved to include public health security.5,6 Politicians and stakeholders rely upon their public health agencies to be informed in a timely fashion and to be able to respond promptly to all potential health treats that may arise as populations need protection whatever the risk. For public health surveillance, this implies the need to monitor a very large spectrum of all hazards health threats. At the same time, as many public agencies are currently facing budgetary constraints, they must allocate theirs resources as efficiently as possible, as surveillance systems cannot be implemented for all known health threats. The priorities for diseases surveillance need to be reviewed regularly in order to guarantee that the most topical public health issues are consistently tackled and to ensure quality …