Field epidemiology training program resident advisors in Africa meet to review public health informatics curriculum

As public health systems and public health data become increasingly digitized, it is essential to build public health informatics (PHI) capacity among field epidemiology training program (FETP) trainees and their technical supervisors (Resident Advisors and mentors) to effectively support trainees in applying PHI to their day-to-day work in field epidemiology.

Against this backdrop, in February 2024, a curriculum development workgroup was formed to create the first-ever package of PHI training materials designed for FETP-Intermediate (FETP-I). And in December 2024, Sierra Leone hosted a one-week workshop to pilot the FETP-Intermediate PHI training materials with their current Intermediate cohort. This was an important milestone in quality monitoring of the FETP-I PHI training materials and in upskilling FETP trainees and their technical supervisors in PHI for field epidemiology.

To further refine the curriculum, Resident Advisors across multiple FETPs are gathered in Addis Ababa – Ethiopia, for a weeklong (August 25-29, 2025) for a “first-look” and opportunity to provide feedback for continuous quality improvement and customization of the materials.

The participating Resident Advisors from were drawn from 10 FETP programs including Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, South Africa, and Zambia.

The Addis Ababa meeting is premised on three objectives: To refine, customize, and gather feedback on FETP Public Health Informatics training materials for FETP-I programs in Africa; upskill FETP Resident Advisors on PHI principles and applications to field epidemiology; and develop an implementation guide for applying PHI knowledge and skills to FETP-I fieldwork such as public health surveillance and outbreak response.

Context

In February 2024, a curriculum development workgroup was formed to create the first-ever package of PHI training materials designed for FETP-Intermediate. The workgroup consisted of FETP and PHI SMEs from:

• S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC)
• global FETP technical advisors from Sierra Leone, Kenya, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA)
• and implementing partners University of Washington and University of California-San Francisco.
  
  The workgroup created a package of FETP-I PHI training materials which include:

• learning objectives
• facilitator presentation slides and scripts
• practical classroom exercises and facilitator answer keys and
• case study narrative and practice datasets graciously donated by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health.