Developing an Emergency Preparedness and Response Resources Dashboard

Effective response to disease outbreaks and public health emergencies requires Public Health Emergency Operations Centers (PHEOCs) to have a clear overview of the resources available to conduct the response, including but not limited to human resources, infrastructure, and equipment. This information is not only necessary during an emergency to inform resource and response management, but also while undertaking activities–such as developing strategic response plans, pinpointing where to conduct training or capacity building activities, or determining the
subnational allocation of resources–in preparation for a potential emergency.

Population Services International (PSI) actively supports the Communicable Disease Control Department at the Cambodian Ministry of Health (CDC-MoH) to address gaps in health security, under a three-year investment (2020-2023) by the Indo-Pacific Center for Health Security to strengthen PHEOCs and improve long-term national capacity to monitor, prepare, and respond to disease outbreaks.

In 2021, PSI and the CDC-MoH initiated the process to develop an emergency response resources dashboard within CamEWARN, the national disease surveillance system hosted in DHIS2, for use by health officials for emergency preparedness and response activities. A pilot phase was successfully conducted in seven provinces over several months in 2022.

This brief describes our experience with the design, development, and piloting of the new PHEOC emergency response resources dashboard to date.