The Training of Trainers (ΤοΤ) aims to reinforce senior Public Health Institutions’ (IPH) staff linked to the MediPIET programme as part of the backbone of the Field Epidemiology Training Programme (FETP) at country level.

Following the regional needs-driven approach, MediPIET team had already identified Go.Data outbreak investigation training tool as a means to support cascade training among those Network’s countries implementing or planning to implement the tool at national level.

Go.Data is an outbreak investigation tool, developed by WHO and GOARN, to help epidemiologists collect case and contact data during public health emergencies.

The ToT was a 9-hour hands-on training course delivered online using Microsoft Teams and the online Go.Data platform.  At the end of the training, participants were able to:

• Understand how to configure Go.Data for tracking COVID19 cases and their contacts.
• Understand how to manage (enter, import and use) case information.
• Understand how to manager (enter, import and use) contact information.
• Understand how to manage (enter, import and use) information related to laboratory analyses.

The contents were organized in five units delivered online in three synchronous sessions of 3 hours each.  There were 2 groups of participants, the first participating on the 3, 5, 6 November 2020 and the second participating on the 10, 12, 13 November 2020.

This ToT was conceived to support the countries to cascade the training to other PH staff working at central and peripheral levels. Thus, the ToT was mainly addressed to trainers and to mid- and senior career public health officials of the MediPIET Network countries and secondly to MediPIET Cohort 3 fellows.

In total, 51 public health officers participated in the training, of which 40 successfully completed all three days of the course divided in two groups: 22 joined the first group and 18 the second one. Participants were from Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, France, Georgia, Kosovo[i], Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Palestine[ii], Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey and Uganda. A certificate of completion was provided to this group of participants. The remaining 11 participants followed only one (n=7) or two of three training days (n=4). These participants were from Algeria, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Morocco and Palestine.

To make the training more effective, participants were required to complete before the training the Go.Data online training course in OpenWHO at participant’s own pace, with duration of approximately 1.5 hour. After completion of this course, participants obtained and submitted a certificate that allowed them to join the MediPIET Go.Data training.

This ToT was organized by the MediPIET Consortium and the WHO Go.Data Team that implemented the contents: Giovanna Jaramillo Gutierrez, Epidemiologist; Cristina Valencia, Epidemiologist, Amy Lang, GIS Expert, and Larry Hinkle, Epidemiologist.

The training was timely delivered to support COVID-19 response and with the intention to initiate cascade trainings in the participants’ countries and workplaces and was highly appreciated by the vast majority of participants.

The MediPIET team would like to acknowledge and express their appreciation and gratitude to The Go.Data Team, WHO for welcoming the idea of delivering this training to MediPIET Network members. Their professionalism and ability to connect with participants even during an online delivery is amazing.

We would also like to thank all course participants for their motivation and dedication to the completion of the 9-hour training including the prerequisite online course despite their busy schedules during these difficult times.

[i] This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

[ii] This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the Member States on this issue