Pre-conference: Showcasing innovative cases in health reporting

Wednesday 20 November, 13:30 - 17:00, Room Endoume 4

Organised by:

EUPHA Section Public health monitoring and reporting, InfAct - Joint Action on Health Information, WHO Europe, Sciensano

Background

Routine population health monitoring starts with data collection and by making routine secondary data sources available for its purposes. This is followed by processing and analysing the data, often in a standardised way, to ensure comparability, validity, and reliability and to make this information available for a wider circle of recipients.

Afterwards health information needs to be transferred into formats that provide a fact-based interpretation of the information generated. These formats need to be easily applicable and comprehensible for politicians, policy-makers, relevant stakeholders and the general public. By doing so, health reporting aims to generate knowledge and awareness about important public health issues and their determinants and to recommend actions to ensure healthy living conditions and the development of healthy public policies.

There are a range of formats for the dissemination of health information. Classical examples are paper reports, leaflets but also policy briefs, press releases or presentations. However, times are changing and the Internet has revolutionised our way of reporting and disseminating results. The challenge is to present the relevant information in an attractive and authoritative though easy-to-find, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-use way. The products should be eye-catchers to stand out in an information overload and often allow interaction through social media.

Programme

This pre-conference will be split in three sections: an introductory section, a section presenting showcases and an interactive section. The first section will set the scene. One presentation will be based on the Health Evidence Network (HEN) synthesis report from the World Health Organization Regional office for Europe (WHO Europe) on mechanisms and tools for the use of health information for decision-making. This report provides an overview on the various dissemination formats and dissemination processes. A second presentation will give a comprehensive overview of different national health reporting formats in EU member states and associated countries. Good practice examples are to be derived from the results and lead to guidance for good practice in health reporting. The results are based on a mapping study within the project “InfAct – Information for Action” from the Robert-Koch-Institute.

In the next section, three innovative or unusual ways of health reporting will be showcased from the Netherlands, Lithuania and Germany. In the Netherlands, an innovative website has been created (The State of Public Health and Health Care), presenting key figures for the Ministry of Health, Wellbeing and Sport. The website presents up-to-date and unambiguous figures that allow the Ministry’s policies to be monitored and accounted for. The digital product is also available as an application (App) for mobile devices. The State is produced by a consortium of seven major knowledge centres in the Netherlands. In Lithuania, the Department of Statistics from Statistics Lithuania has engaged in an interesting collaboration to enhance its health reporting outputs. They work together with a local Design School in order to creatively bring their results across both in reports and through Social Media. In Germany, a sub-national health report was translated into Easy-to-Read language, a language type that helps people with learning difficulties to understand (public) texts. This translation was triggered by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that determines amongst others the right of access to information. The translation of a public health report into Easy-to-Read language was the first of its kind in Germany. The challenges experienced (e.g. avoid numbers and rates) as well as the solutions that were taken will be part of the presentation. 

After hearing about these inspirational cases, an interactive session will take place. Participants will have the opportunity to share innovative health reporting examples they are familiar with. Additionally, ideas on possible other ways of innovative health reporting will be discussed.

By participating to this pre-conference, participants will be familiarised with good practices, key tools and methods to increase the uptake of health reports. Theory will be illustrated through practical examples. Participants will have ample time to interact and share their own experience.

Registration fee

The registration fee is € 70 which includes networking lunch and refreshments.