About Go.Data

Background

During an outbreak, a large amount of data and information is generated in a short period of time and must be kept up to date and shared with different actors in the response.  This includes case data, contact data, laboratory and clinical data, contact follow-up information.

The outbreak response team working in the field needs robust and reliable tools to manage potentially large amounts of data and efficiently coordinate their essential work.

The outbreak response team is a multi-partner collaboration. Experts from ministries of Health, non-governmental organisations, United Nations agencies etc. may be deployed and need to work together in a clear and efficient manner.

Developing Go.Data

Decades of outbreak response experience have culminated in the development of Go.Data – a data collection tool developed by WHO and GOARN Partners to help responders work smarter.

Designed for outbreak investigators and epidemiologists, the Go.Data tool is an easy to use case and contact data collection and visualization of disease transmission that can help responders choose the right interventions to stop a disease from spreading.

As a global solution, Go.Data aims to strengthen and enhance technical support to all countries for readiness activities; outbreak risk assessments; field investigations and response, including response research.  

The Go.Data tool allows for more rapid data entry, offer better visualization of chains of transmission and runs in stand-alone and connected modes, enabling more flexible ways of working and improved data sharing.

In addition, it allows access though mobile devices, especially to support work of the contact tracing teams.

This tool will be made available in due course globally to WHO staff, Member states and Partners to support and facilitate outbreak investigation focusing on field data collection, contact tracing and visualization of chains of transmission.

Go.Data Training

WHO and GOARN partners periodically host introductory training for Go.Data for users by invitation.

The training is a class room based introduction for beginner users to the Go.Data tool where participants are introduced to the tool and oriented on how to use it in the context of outbreak response and field data collection. With focus on the features and functionalities of the Go.Data tool, the training complements the hands-on learning with stories, experiences and facilitated group discussions delivered by diverse faculty of expert users and field responders.

To find out more about Go.Data  please email godata@who.int