Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Apr 6, 2019
Date Accepted: Jul 18, 2019
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
An Electronic Disease Early Warning System in Sana’a Governorate, Yemen: Evaluation Study
Background:
Electronic Disease Early Warning System (eDEWS) is one of the effective programs in epidemiological surveillance.
Objective:
This study aimed to identify the strengths and weaknesses of eDEWS in Sana’a governorate, determine its usefulness, and assess its performance in terms of the system attributes, including simplicity, flexibility, data quality, acceptability, representativeness, timeliness, and stability.
Methods:
Updated guidelines on the evaluation of public health surveillance from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were used to evaluate the eDEWS in Sana’a governorate. Stakeholders from different levels were interviewed about the performance of the eDEWS.
Results:
The overall score for the usefulness of the eDEWS was good (mean=83%). The overall system performance was good (86%). The highest attribute score was 100% for representativeness and the lowest score was 70% for stability. The system simplicity and acceptability were good. Although the system representativeness and flexibility were excellent, the stability was average. System completeness and timeliness were 100%.
Conclusions:
In conclusion, eDEWS in Yemen is useful and met its main objective. The overall level of system performance was good.
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