Improving and strengthening national surveillance systems in Estonia

This abstract outlines Estonia's Health Board initiatives to bolster its infectious disease surveillance system. The focus includes developing an interface between the Communicable Diseases Laboratory and Communicable diseases information system for automated data exchange, reducing manual entry. The second initiative involves a prototype for automated hospital bed data exchange, addressing challenges faced during the COVID-19 crisis. A business analysis and prototype decreased reliance on manual data entry. The third initiative targets healthcare worker training, improving communicable disease data submission. The fourth initiative enhances influenza-like infections' sentinel surveillance, improving participation, data quality, and timeliness. Training sessions and an online-based survey increased participation and coverage. The fifth initiative explores automating genetic epidemiology data analysis and sharing. The Health Board aims to establish a real-time analysis platform for outbreak investigations, harnessing genomic data for targeted interventions. Together, these initiatives fortify Estonia's infectious disease surveillance with automation, improved data quality, and advanced genomic analysis for a proactive public health response.