INDEPTH ED presents CHESS innovation at major health forum

INDEPTH Network Executive Director, Prof. Osman Sankoh, on 20 April 2016 presented CHESS during a session on SDGs Metrics at the Geneva Health Forum in Switzerland.

The session brought together key players in the field of measuring indicators of progress in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

INDEPTH's new generation of population surveillance operations—the Comprehensive Health and Epidemiological Surveillance System (CHESS) (link is external)—is capable of timely delivery of high-quality data for disease-specific and pathogen-specific morbidity, together with data for overall and cause-specific mortality. In addition to disease causes and morbidities, CHESS will include full risk factor surveillance and address the full range of the rapidly transitioning burden of disease, including non-communicable diseases and external causes and their associated morbidities. Importantly, CHESS will include monitoring health systems and policy initiatives because they affect communities and households.

The theme of the Geneva Health Forum was innovation, and the session looked at metrics in the SDGs from an innovation perspective around three aspects:  Innovation in Science for Measurement; Innovation in Engagement of ‘Metricians’ and Innovation in Use of Metrics.