China CDC holds ASEAN-China Online Workshop and Tabletop Exercise on Information Technology Supported Outbreak Investigation

Hosted by the Center for Global Public Health of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), the ASEAN-China Online Workshop and Tabletop Exercise on Information Technology Supported Outbreak Investigation was held on December 15, 2022. 

 

Supported by ASEAN member states, the ASEAN Secretariat and the ASEAN SOMHD, a total of 64 public health professionals from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Lao PDR, Brunei Darussalam, Philippines, Cambodia , China and ASEAN Secretariat participated the event. Zhou Yuhui, Deputy Director General of China CDC, and Dr.Thilaka Chinnayah Nadarajah, Deputy Director of Disease Control Division at Malaysia's Ministry of Health, attended the event and delivered speeches. 

 

Zhou noted that according to the Joint Statement of the 8th China-ASEAN Health Ministers' Meeting, building more robust and resilient regional health systems in ASEAN through supporting information sharing and exchange of best practices in response to public health emergencies are key areas of ASEAN-China collaboration. This online workshop and tabletop exercise will promote further exchange and cooperation in this field. 

 

Focusing on the wide application of information technology in practical work, the online workshop invited Dr.Thilaka Chinnayah Nadarajah, Deputy Director of Disease Control Division at Malaysia’s Ministry of Health; Mr. John Paul Goh, director of the Centre for Intensive Tracing and Epidemiology at Singaporean Ministry of Health; Mr. Pongsakorn Sadakorn, public health technical officer at Insect-borne Diseases Division of Department of Disease Control at Thailand's Ministry of Public Health; and Dr. Qi Xiaopeng, Executive Director of the Center for Global Public Health of the China CDC, to share experiences of information technology application in infectious diseases monitoring and field investigation. 

 

Based on an outbreak of an unexplained infectious disease, the tabletop exercise session consisted of four parts, namely, outbreak identification, case searching, risk analysis and summary. It was carried out in the forms of online video, scenario simulation and discussions. Ms. Wang Lili from Center for Global Public Health of China CDC led the whole exercise as a controller, and Dr. Lance Rodewald participated the discussion as an evaluator. 

 

This activity took half a year of preparation, staffs went through many rounds of scenario design, knowledge extraction, question polishing, investigation software optimization and animation video production. It effectively enhanced the capacity building of China and ASEAN member states in infectious disease prevention, control and monitoring, providing guidance for a more effective application of information technology in monitoring and onsite disease control.