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Regional Committee for Europe EUR/RC67/TD/5
67th session
Budapest, Hungary, 11–14 September 2017 5 September 2017 170721 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
Technical briefing
Collaboration on health information and reporting between the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission and
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Wednesday, 13 September 2017
18:00–19:30, Arcade
Background
1. Following feedback from Member States, the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development met in June 2017 to discuss future collaboration in the areas of health information and reporting.
2. In going forward, the three organizations have agreed to a set of commitments aimed at reducing the number of data requests and indicators collected, where possible and appropriate, in their own respective agencies. Within the confines of legal, organizational and technical constraints, the three organizations have agreed to take actions necessary to enhance collaboration. These actions are presented in a supporting paper entitled Collaboration on health information and reporting between the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the
European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development:
draft outline of future actions.
Objectives
3. The purposes of this technical briefing are:
• to inform Member States on the progress made by the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in identifying areas of technical work where the three organizations can enhance cooperation;
• to create a platform for Member States to provide input to and feedback on the areas of enhanced cooperation that the three organizations have mutually identified; and
• to provide an opportunity for Member States to express support for the continued collaboration between the three international organizations towards integrating and aligning health information in the WHO European Region.
EUR/RC67/TD/5 page 2
Talking points for discussion
• What feedback do Member States have on the areas of enhanced cooperation that the three organizations have mutually identified?
• What aspects of collaboration between the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development do Member States find most useful?
References
• Draft outline of potential areas of collaboration between the Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development.
• Action plan to strengthen the use of evidence, information and research for policy- making in the WHO European Region (document EUR/RC66/12;
http://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/governance/regional-committee-for-europe/past- sessions/66th-session/documentation/working-documents/eurrc6612-action-plan-to- strengthen-the-use-of-evidence,-information-and-research-for-policy-making-in-the- who-european-region).
• The objectives, principles and modalities for continued cooperation between the European Commission and the WHO Regional Office for Europe (document EUR/RC65/Inf.Doc./7; http://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/governance/regional- committee-for-europe/past-sessions/65th-session/documentation/information-
documents/eurrc65inf.doc.7-the-objectives,-principles-and-modalities-for-continued- cooperation-between-the-european-commission-and-the-who-regional-office-for- europe).
• Joint action plan between the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the WHO Regional Office for Europe
(http://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/partners/organisation-for-economic-co-operation- and-development-oecd).
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1 WHO Regional Office for Europe
67th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe Budapest, Hungary, 11–14 September 2017
Collaboration on health information and reporting between the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission and
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Draft outline of future actions
After receiving positive feedback from the Member States of the WHO European Region in June 2017, the Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission (EC) and the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD) discussed future joint collaboration on health information and reporting.
In going forward, the three organizations agreed to a set of commitments aimed at reducing the number of data requests and collected indicators, where possible and appropriate. In particular, and subject to legal, organizational and technical restrictions, the organizations agreed:
• to align internal data collections;
• to align the timing of their data collections with the other two organizations;
• to enhance data sharing with the other two organizations; and
• to work towards omitting indicators that are collected by another organisation;
In addition, the three organizations agreed to collaborate on the following aspects of health information and reporting:
(a) data collection and data exchange:
• Expand Joint Data Collections in areas of core mandate of each entity, while critically reviewing the scope of current joint data collections to identify variables that could be dropped based on the criteria of relevance and data comparability;
• to coordinate the timing of separate but related data requests, where possible;
• to develop reusable and interoperable new online tools that would allow Member States to upload health data and indicators, and that could be accessed by each organization; and
• to examine the possibility of expanding the joint data collections to include mortality and health status indicators;
(b) the harmonization of metadata and methods:
• to further develop the WHO European Health Information Initiative’s indicator mapping exercise in selected areas and to use the results to identify currently collected indicators that could be deprioritized or dropped from current data collections;
• to harmonize indicator definitions and metadata, where possible;
• to agree on common metadata standards, such as those developed under the two joint data collections, and to develop metadata mapping and interoperability; and
• to evaluate options for producing and/or adopting a common standard population and to provide clarity on which population structure to use;
(c) capacity-building:
• to improve the capability of Member States to use high-quality harmonized and interoperable health information; and
• to collaborate on capacity-building activities.
