No images? Click here
Welcome to our ninth edition of More than Numbers.
The newsletter that shares the activities, contributions and outcomes
from the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) arm of the
Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative (D4H)
at the University of Melbourne (UoM)
Dear colleagues,
I hope this finds you well during these difficult and uncertain times.
With the coronavirus disease now declared a global pandemic, the CRVS community will play a critical role in generating accurate and timely mortality statistics to not only track the spread and impact of the disease, but to monitor the success of various protective and preventive measures being implemented globally. There has never been a more important time to bring about CRVS reforms.
While it may be easy to despair at the scale and scope of the problem before us, it is also an opportunity to reflect on our community’s achievements to date. Without the progress made to CRVS systems in recent decades, the information available to respond to this crisis would have been much reduced. As key contributors to these important developments, we as a community must feel proud.
Swift and unified action will be our best weapon against this disease. At the University of Melbourne, we are acting on up-to-date information provided by global health authorities, and will soon be releasing a resource pack to guide countries in the correct certification and coding of COVID-19 deaths.
Throughout this crisis, we have seen the continued implementation of D4H interventions as our team and country partners find innovative ways to push forward despite the varying travel restrictions in place. For this reason, we are confident that the COVID-19 pandemic will not compromise our mission.
Please enjoy this update and opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of our community. We will be in touch again soon as we release our COVID-19 resource pack.
Best wishes,
Laureate Professor Alan Lopez AC, Director
Have comments or suggestions for future content?
Email us at crvs-info@unimelb.edu.au
The Data for Health Initiative is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)
Do you have questions about how to certify and code COVID-19 deaths?
Next week they will be answered. We will share an instructional video that will guide you through the completion of the medical certificate of cause of death and coding for two COVID-19 deaths.
When the video is available on the CRVS Knowledge Gateway, we'll notify you.
Select the button to share our subscription link with your colleagues, so they are notified too.
The Verbal Autopsy Interpretation, Performance and Evaluation Resource (VIPER) alpha release is now available on the CRVS Knowledge Gateway.
VIPER helps you analyse and understand Cause of Death (COD) data generated by Verbal Autopsy (VA).
The alpha release is based in Excel, imports SmartVA data only and is available in English. Future releases will incorporate WHO 2016 data, offer the option to import InSilico and InterVA data and be available in additional languages.
Download here - ◕ 1 min read
Discover how new strategies implemented by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the University of Melbourne, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Papuan National Department of Health (NDOH) and the Papuan Department of Provincial and Local Government Affairs (DPLGA) improve field staff roles and CRVS process.
Follow Martha Wame, Field Coordinator for the BD4H initiative in Papua New Guinea, as she travels by car, boat and foot to conduct verbal autopsies in rural communities.
Article here - ◕ 10 min read
We reached out to three fellows from the October 2019 intake.
Md. Toufiq Shawon
Government Medical Officer at the Trishal Upazilla Health Complex uses VIPER in Bangladesh.
Dr. May Thu Zaw
Deputy Director of the Planning Division for the Department of Medical Service at the Ministry of Health and Sports implements Monitoring and Evaluation in Myanmar.
Dr. Suresh Mehata
Chief of the Monitoring and Evaluation Ministry of Health and Population in Nepal prepares to implement CRVS processes.
See what they valued most about the CRVS Fellowship program and what they're up to now. Article here - ◕ 4 min read
BMC Medicine Journal publishes UoM D4H CRVS collection
The first Civil Registration and Vital Statistics collection published in the BMC Medicine journal to report on experience in implementing technical interventions over the first four years of the Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative. Eight articles are now available on the gateway.
Article here - ◕ 2 min read
Want more information on CRVS? Our library is a good place to start.
You can take a look at all of our resources at: https://crvsgateway.info/library
Below are the latest resources that have been added to the Gateway.
Analyses & evaluations
Fellowship profiles & reports
Technical guides
Tools
New resources available in Chinese
Sent by:
The University of Melbourne Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative
Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Parkville 3053, Victoria, Australia
ABN 84 002 705 224 | CRICOS Provider Number 00116K
