Authors: Colombia Implementation Working Group
Publication date: September 2018
Resource type: CRVS country report
Related resources: CRVS country overview: Colombia
CRVS systems – notably for birth and death registration, With the aim of identifying and reducing inequities across populations and ‘leaving no-one behind’.
This paper details Colombia’s strategy to increase the registration and certification of vital events in rural municipalities and ethnic communities. Key parts of this intervention involve developing a proactive search system to improve capture of vital events through mobile notification, and subsequently applying automated verbal autopsy to determine probable cause of community-based deaths.
Authors: Colombia Implementation Working Group
Publication date: September 2018
Resource type: CRVS country report
Related resources: CRVS country overview: Colombia
<p class="p1">The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda is an Action Agenda unanimously agreed by the UN Member States at a high-level UN summit in September 2015. The 17 SDGs considerably expand the scope and ambition of their precursor, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 2001. </p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1">The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is applicable to all countries until the year 2030. It aims to ensure ‘No One is Left Behind’ in global sustainable development efforts, regardless of who they are and where they live.</p>
<p>Iris is an automated, interactive mortality coding system, which codes multiple causes of death and selects the underlying cause of death for statistical tabulation.</p>
Deaths that occur outside of health facilities in Brazil are not necessarily recorded in all the databases that they should be, which makes the development of health policies and plans difficult. Dr Antonio Tadeu Ribeiro de Oliveira, Researcher at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) shares how linking systems will improve the country's understanding of mortality patterns. Filmed at the meeting on strengthening the quality of information on causes of death in Brazil in October 2017.
Conferencia con el Profesor Alan Lopez, Director de la Iniciativa Datos para la Salud. Filmado en Lima, Perú, en Septiembre de 2018.
SDGs have been agreed to by the global development community as representing the direction of global development efforts between 2015 and 2030.
Recently, the birth registration rate jumped to more than 40 percent after Bangladesh re-worked their CRVS system.
Historically in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the two major health systems for capturing deaths and causes of death have not provided complete or timely information.
Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor for the Access to Information Programme (a2i) at the Prime Minister's Office in Bangladesh, and National Advisor to the CRVS Steering Committee, Cabinet Division explains how the country improved registration through enterprise architecture.
Why Data for Health? For more information on the initiative visit: www.crvsgateway.info/aboutus Interviews with Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health staff: -Laureate Professor Alan Lopez, Technical Director, University of Melbourne -Carla AbouZahr, Senior Technical Adviser, University of Melbourne -Dr Lene Mikkelsen, Senior Technical Adviser, University of Melbourne -Professor Don deSavigny, Chief Technical Collaborator, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
“The implications of not having your birth registered are huge,” says statistician and BD4H Tanzania CRVS Fellow Chris Sanga, “yet as little as 1 in 4 Tanzanian children under the age of 5 have had their birth registered.”
The CRVS Knowledge Gateway developed by the University of Melbourne, provides technical tools and information that countries can use to improve birth and death data, with the ultimate goal to support their citizens to live longer, healthier lives.
A new empirical method to estimate the completeness of death registration, has been developed and launched by the CRVS team at the University of Melbourne.
A new interactive mobile app that was created as part of Data for Health, won an award at the Commonwealth Digital Health Conference Awards in Colombo, Sri Lanka in October 2017.
In Peru, over one in five people who die are not being counted in either the Ministry of Health or in the National Registry of Identification and Marital Status.
Automated verbal autopsy (VA), Data collection on handheld devices will help automate algorithms to generate probable cause of death (COD)
Country coordinators from Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, Indonesia, Malawi, Myanmar, Peru, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tanzania and Zambia attended a CRVS boot camp organised by Bloomberg Data for Health partners, the University of Melbourne and Vital Strategies.
Access to reliable and timely mortality and cause of death statistics is essential for monitoring trends in diseases, injuries and risk factors, and critically important to guide good public health policy and prevention. Training in ANACONDA will build this capacity in the Philippines, enabling them to identify inconsistencies and errors in their mortality datasets and subsequently improve the quality of their mortality statistics.
In order to build capacity to strengthen CRVS systems in countries involved in the BD4H, six to eight fellows from the project's countries are trained a year on CRVS systems and work on a project with direct application to BD4H activities in their country.
With the increasing capabilities of technology to bring together scientists who were once separated geographically or by different disciplines, we now have the ability to track and estimate disease, injuries and risk factors down to the specifics, and with a level of accuracy that we couldn’t have imagined before.
The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute at the University of Basel is the University of Melbourne’s collaborator for the BD4H Initiative, developing CRVS tools and filling knowledge and methods gaps in order to provide technical assistance to countries.
Greenland is considered a high-income country that has almost doubled its life expectancy since the 1950s, yet the life expectancy of the country is that of low-income countries - so what are people dying of and why?
Greenland's cause of death data have only recently been separated from Denmark in the Global Burden of Disease Study. University of Melbourne Data for Health Initiative visiting academic Kim Moesgaard Iburg is Associate Professor at Aarhus University in Denmark, he is studying how the quality of these data can be improved to further benefit the direction of health policy in the country.
“Estimating and analysing the distribution of causes of death in rural areas of the world may not sound as sexy as ground-breaking surgery techniques, but it has the potential to save millions of lives. Our research will help inform health policy in underdeveloped regions of the world,” Riley said.
Describes the alternative classification of garbage codes used in ANACONDA that better aligns with public health priorities.
Publication date: July 2018
Resource type: CRVS best-practice and advocacy
Related resources: Redefining 'garbage codes' for public health policy: Report on the expert group meeting, 27-28 February 2017
Strengthening CRVS in Solomon Islands is a challenge because data, especially death data, have never been collected before in an organised manner. Only two percent of all estimated deaths are registered in the country. Dilip Hensman, Technical Officer, World Health Organization explains. Watch Dilip describe the barriers to death notification in the Solomon Islands: https://youtu.be/9F4ntk7xtCk
Professor Alan Lopez says the use of big data can revolutionise global health policy.
<p>Program which automates the underlying cause of death coding rules. The inputs to ACME are the multiple ICD cause of death codes assigned to each entity (eg disease condition, accident or injury) listed on cause of death certifications, preserving the location and order as reported by the certifier. ACME then applies WHO rules to the ICD codes and selects an underlying cause of death. ACME has become the de facto international standard for the automated selection of underlying cause of death.</p>
<p>In some legal systems, an item of 'primary legislation' (law passed in parliament) is known as an act after enactment.</p>
<p>The interval of time between birth and the present, expressed in completed units of solar time. For adults and children, age is usually measured in completed years, while for infants or very young children, in completed months, weeks, days, hours or minutes of life as appropriate.</p>
<p>The person who assisted the mother in giving birth; eg a physician, midwife, nurse, paramedic or lay person.</p>
<p>Before an item of legislation becomes law, it may be known as a bill.</p>
<p>See 'live birth'</p>
<p>The number of times that a woman has given birth to a fetus with a gestational age of 24 weeks or more, regardless of whether the child was born alive or was stillborn.</p>
<p>The crude birth rate is the number of birth over a given period divided by the person years lived by the population over that period. It is expressed as the number of births per 1000 population.</p>
<p>A characteristic of a live born infant or dead fetus whose mother and father were legally married (any recognised union according to the laws or customs of the country) at the time of delivery.</p>
<p>A characteristic of a live born infant or dead fetus whose mother and father were not legally married at the time of delivery.</p>
<p>An official document, usually issued only for a legally registered death, authorising the removal of the dead body (corpse) to a cemetery or other final site.</p>
<p>A type of method that can be used to assess the completeness of registration. Two independent sources of data are used to identify births or deaths, with subsequent determination made of the proportion of cases identified by the second method that were also identified by the first. From this information, the total number of cases can be estimated using mathematical models. Although capture-recapture methods can be used to help monitor trends over time, this assumes closed populations (that is, low rates of migration).</p>
Ecuador has demonstrated its commitment to civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) improvement in spite of the country’s limited resources and duplicative efforts in the production of vital statistics. This short video is an overview of CRVS in the country, and highlights videos that provide a more in-depth understanding of their system and improvements as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative.
This summary Fellowship report highlights key features of the CRVS-VA management dashboard that was developed by Patrick Larbi-Debrah from the Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation department of Ghana Health Service, as part of his time at the Universities of Melbourne and Basel. The dashboard is a user-friendly tool that provides real-time monitoring of summary statistics from VA interviews.
Author: Larbi-Debrah, P
Publication date: July 2018
Resource type: CRVS Fellowship reports and profiles
Related resources: Ghana: CRVS country profile
Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative researchers Professor Alan Lopez, Dr Tim Adair, Sonja Firth and Nicola Richards travelled to Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, in early August to assist with strengthening the local civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system.
In May, the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health (BD4H) Initiative joined with several countries in Bangkok to develop country-specific process models for the registration of births and deaths, both inside and outside health facilities.
Both Bangladesh and Myanmar have prioritised coding in their Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Country Work Plans. The country does not have a team of coders so the training has helped build the expertise in-country.
Mire videos con las partes interesadas de RCEV de Perú sobre cómo está trabajando el país para fortalecer su sistema de RCEV y mejorar sus datos de causa de muerte.
This paper describes the Verbal Autopsy Costing and Budgeting Tool that has been developed by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the University of Melbourne. The tool estimates the resources needed to implement verbal autopsy (VA) as part of a routine civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system. The tool has been piloted in four different countries, representing different stages of implementation of VA activities, and the tool was able to demonstrate the relatively low ongoing cost of conducting routine VA when integrated within a CRVS system.
Authors: Cobos Muñoz D, Monzon Llamas L, Dayo C, Renggli S, deSavigny D
Publication date: January 2019
Resource type: CRVS analyses and evaluations
Related resources: Challenges associated with automated VA training and rollout
Watch videos with Peru's CRVS stakeholders on how the country is working to strengthen their CRVS system and improve their cause of death data.
Entrevista con Dr Rosario Kiyohara Okamoto, Directora General Hospital Nacional Dos de Mayo, Ministerio de Salud CEO. Filmado en Septiembre de 2018 en Lima, Perú. Interview with Dr Rosario Kiyohara Okamoto, CEO, National Hospital Dos de Mayo, Ministry of Health. Filmed in September 2018 in Lima, Peru. Video in Spanish with English subtitles.
Entrevista con Dr Leonardo Rojas Mezarina, Asesor Técnico Unidad de Telesalud, Universidad Nacional Mayor. Filmado en Septiembre de 2018 en Lima, Perú. Interview with Dr Leonardo Rojas Mezarina, Mayor Technical Advisor Telehealth Unit, National University of San Marcos. Filmed in September 2018 in Lima, Peru. Video in Spanish with English subtitles.
Entrevista con Lic Gladys Garro, Directora de la Oficina Ejecutiva de Gestión de la Información, Oficina General de Tecnologías de la Información (OGTI), Ministerio de Salud. Filmado en Septiembre de 2018 en Lima, Perú. Interview with Lic Gladys Garro, Director of the Executive Office of Information Management, General Office of Information Technologies (OGTI), Ministry of Health. Filmed in September 2018 in Lima, Peru. Video in Spanish with English subtitles.
Lecture with Professor Alan Lopez, Director of the Data for Health Initiative. Filmed in Lima, Peru in September 2018.
Peru has demonstrated its commitment to civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) improvement in spite of the country’s limited resources and duplicative efforts in the production of vital statistics. This short video is an overview of CRVS in the country, and highlights videos that provide a more in-depth understanding of their system and improvements as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative.
Perú ha demostrado su compromiso con la mejora de los registros civil y de las estadísticas vitales (RCEV) a pesar de tener recursos limitados y esfuerzos duplicados en la producción de estadísticas vitales. Este breve video es una descripción general de CRVS en el país, y destaca los videos que proporcionan una comprensión más profunda de su sistema y mejoras como parte de la Iniciativa de Datos para la Salud de Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Reunirse con with Dr Andres Eduardo Castro Flores, Médico legista, Instituto de Medicina Legal de Lima, Ministerio Público; Javier Vargas, Coordinador de País, Iniciativa de Datos para la Salud; Dr Judith Angelica Maguiña Romero, Médico legista, Instituto de Medicina Legal de Lima, Ministerio Público. Filmado en Lima, Perú, en Septiembre de 2018. Meeting with Dr Andres Eduardo Castro Flores, Medical Examiner, Institute of Legal Medicine of Lima, Public Ministry; Javier Vargas, Country Coordinator, Data for Health Initiative, Dr Judith Angelica Maguiña Romero, Medical Examiner, Institute of Legal Medicine of Lima Public Ministry. Filmed in Lima, Peru in September 2018. Spanish video with English subtitles.
Since 2014, there have been substantial investments in strengthening Papua New Guinea’s civil registration and vital statistics system. However challenges still remain, especially around the integration of mortality surveillance systems. Interview with John Hart, Technical Advisor, University of Melbourne, Dr Viola Kwa, Country Coordinator, filmed in Melbourne, Australia on December 2018.
Charlotte Polly, Statistician for Hospitals, National Department of Health and Ila Rouka, Technical Advisor, National Health Information Systems describe why about 85 percent of Papua New Guinean deaths are unreported and how the country is working to change that.
Watch videos with Papua New Guinea CRVS stakeholders on how the country is working to strengthen their CRVS system and improve their cause of death data.
Este modelo foi desenvolvido para ajudar os países a escrever um relatório de avaliação da qualidade dos dados sobre mortalidade, utilizando ANACONDA. Podem ser incluídas todas as seções, tabelas e gráficos indicados, ou selecionar um subconjunto menor para trabalhar.
Publication date: January 2019
Resource type: CRVS tool
Related resources: Course prospectus: ANACONDA; Guidance for assessing and interpreting the quality of mortality data using ANACONDA
Process mapping forces CRVS stakeholders to look at the whole system, considering not only the activities in which they are involved but also those implemented by other CRVS stakeholders and the relationships among them.
This SmartVA IT action guide describes how to install and use the SmartVA Analyze software ('Tariff') for automated analysis of verbal autopsy data.
Publication date: October 2018
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: SmartVA technical user manual
This report provides practical guidance about how population and health observatories and CRVS systems can collaborate, to ultimately improve the registration and certification of births, deaths, and causes of death.
Authors: de Savigny D, Renggli S, Cobos D, Collinson M, Sankoh O
Publication date: March 2018
Resource type: CRVS best-practice and advocacy
Zambia's rate of death registration coverage has been low as a result of the law that requires all deaths that are registered to have a cause. The Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative in Zambia is using verbal autopsy methods to count deaths that occur outside of health settings, in order to get a better understanding of who is dying of what in the country, which will better inform preventative health policies and plans. Interview with Brian Munkombwe, Health Scientist, US CDC; Chomba Mwango, Country Coordinator, Data for Health Initiative; Lisuba Kabanda, Senior Registrar, National Registration Passport and Citizenship in Melbourne, Australia in December 2018.
"To improve the CRVS system, we need to cooperate, coordinate and collaborate," says Dr Wah Wah Maung, Director-General, Central Statistical Organization of Myanmar. Civil registration and vital statistics data will be very beneficial to the country she says, for evidence-based health planning, resource allocation, as well as monitoring and evaluation.
Outlines an approach to training and education on medical certification of cause of death based on three key stages in a physician's career: during medical school, as an intern or junior physician, and as senior practicing clinicians.
Publication date: August 2018 (update)
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Training and education on medical certification: Effective strategies and approaches
Between January and February 2018, Raquel Barbosa de Lima, from the Department of Health Situation Analysis, Ministry of Health, Brazil, came to the University of Melbourne to receive support in analysing data from a pilot study that investigated key attributes of deaths with ‘garbage codes’.
Author: Raquel de Lima
Publication date: May 2018
Resource type: CRVS Fellowship reports and profiles
Related resources: CRVS country overview: Brazil
Well-functioning civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems will play an important role in assisting countries and regions to measure, monitor and meet their Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets. Strengthening of CRVS systems is an SDG outcome in and of itself; therefore, to fully achieve the SDG agenda, CRVS systems must be robust with near-complete registration of births and deaths.
Publication date: August 2018
Resource type: CRVS best-practice and advocacy
Related resources: Why the Sustainable Development Goal agenda needs strong civil registration and vital statistics systems
Summarises key points from the Lancet series paper, which discussed results from a global assessment of CRVS systems, and the development of a composite index, the Vital Statistics Performance Index (VSPI) that can monitor data quality and progress over time.
Publication date: August 2018
Resource type: CRVS best-practice and advocacy
Related resources: A global assessment of civil registration and vital statistics systems: Monitoring data quality and progress
Source: Lancet
Accurate and timely data on cause of death are critically important for guiding health programs and policies. Physicians in Bangladeshi hospitals had difficulties in completing the MCCD correctly. Physicians routinely made errors in death certification practices and medical record quality was poor. There is an urgent need to improve death certification practices and the quality of hospital data in Bangladesh if these data are to be useful for policy.
Authors: Hazard RH, Chowdhury HR, Adair T, Ansar A, Quaiyum Rahman AM, Alam S, Alam N, Rampatige R, Streatfield PK, Riley ID, Lopez AD
Publication date: 2017
Resource type: CRVS clearinghouse
Related resources: Strategies for improving the quality of cause of death data in hospitals
Source: BMC Health Services Research
Mohamad Ashfaque Mukut, Deputy Secretary Cabinet Division (Bangladesh) and Deputy Project Director of the CRVS Technical Project, shares his fellowship work at the University of Melbourne that looks at a recent pilot in Kaliganj, Bangladesh that encourages health staff to notify community deaths.
University of Melbourne Fellow Dr Muhammad Adnan Khan, who is Assistant Chief Medical in the Director General (Health) in Bangladesh discusses the data quality of the medical certification of cause of death in Bangladesh.
Marc Hagenimana from the Rwanda Biomedical Center, Ministry of Health and University of Melbourne Data for Health Fellow discusses the findings of Rwanda's use of Health-Based Care Practitioners as verbal autopsy interviewers in the country.
How did Rwanda implement standardised MCCOD training across all public hospitals? Godfrey Ngoboka, Rwanda Country Coordinator, and James Mwanza, Rwanda Project Officer from Vital Strategies, explain the approach.
Interview with Xavier Ngomituje, Statistician at the National Institute of Statistics Rwanda on what he is working on during his fellowship at the University of Melbourne as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative. Read Xavier's fellowship report: https://crvsgateway.info/file/5452/1977
How will Indonesia's verbal autopsy work evolve during the Data for Health Initiative, how important are mortality statistics and what are and what do we already know about mortality trends in the country? An interview with Soewarta Kosen from the National Institute of Health Research and Development in Indonesia, filmed in February 2018.
Dr Peng Yin from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention discusses the barriers to verbal autopsy in Beijing, VA data quality and next steps for implementation. Filmed in February 2018.
This short video is an overview of CRVS in Ghana, and highlights videos that provide a more in-depth understanding of their system and improvements as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative.
The University of Melbourne Data for Health CRVS technical team visit the Ghana Birth and Death Registry archives, that have been kept since 1910. With Ghana Birth and Death Registry's Sowada Abordo and Emmanuel Nortey Botchway.
Vital event registration in Ghana is low, with birth registration at 57%. Nevertheless the country is moving to implement digitisation for birth registration records. Benjamin Clapham, Ghana's Project Officer, explains.
Joyce Djama Ampini-Tetteh, Chief Registration Officer from the 37 Military Hospital Registry in Accra, Ghana describes the process of death registration in hospitals.
The University of Melbourne Data for Health CRVS technical team visit Ghana's Birth and Death Registry's Reverend Kingsley Asare Addo (Principal Assistant Registrar) and Registrar John Yao Agbeko.
Anthony Amuzu and Stephen K. Amoah from the Ghana Statistical Service outline recent efforts to mobilise birth and death registration, digitisation, the issues with population registers and their commitment to integrated systems.
Interview with Francis Yeji, Research Officer at the Ghana Health Service and Fellow at the University of Melbourne's Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative.
Patrick Larbi-Debrah, Health Information Officer from Ghana Health Service and University of Melbourne Data for Health Fellow describes how the new verbal autopsy dashboard for supervisors allows for greater visibility to monitor rural verbal autopsy work from central offices. Read more about the dashboard in our resource: https://crvsgateway.info/file/5171/1829
Interview with Professor Don de Savigny from the Data for Health Innovations Hub and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute about how Ghana has been able to undertake process mapping to document the entire 'as is' and 'as desired' civil registration and vital statistics processes and the effect process mapping has had.
This short video is an overview of CRVS in Tanzania, and highlights videos that provide a more in-depth understanding of their system and improvements as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative.
Edward Mbanga, Ag. Director for Policy and Planning at Tanzania's Ministry of Health, Community Development, Elderly and Children agency describes the successes so far of improving health information and its use as a result of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative.
RITA, the agency responsible for birth and death registration in Tanzania shares their progress on their legal and regulatory review, decentralisation of birth and death registration, system sustainability and use of technology.
Godfrey M Semu, Health Record and Information Officer at the Muhimbili National Hospital describes the challenges to timely death certification in Tanzania.
Godfrey M Semu, Health Record and Information Officer at the Muhimbili National Hospital explains how the hospital is rolling out medical certification of death training.
Video with Technical Director of the Data for Health Initiative at the University of Melbourne, Professor Alan Lopez on Sri Lanka's work to improve civil registration and vital statistics.
Recently in Bangkok, representatives from 12 ESCAP countries gathered for the first capacity-building workshop using ANACONDA and the new ANACONDA Plus program.
This paper outlines the strategy for improving the quality and availability of mortality statistics in Sri Lanka, which is built on two main pillars: improving the quality of medical certification of cause of death for facility deaths; and implementing automated verbal autopsy to ascertain probable cause of death for community deaths.
Author: Sri Lanka Implementation Working Group
Publication date: July 2018
Resource type: CRVS country reports
Related resources: CRVS country overview: Sri Lanka
The CRVS system benefits individuals and communities, national administrative systems and statistical systems.
<p>A way to describe the processes for making and implementing decisions.</p>
Ila Rouka and Elizabeth Mathias from the National Department of Health, Papua New Guinea (PNG), came to the University of Melbourne for a fellowship to analyse medical certificates of cause of death.
Le présent manuel a été conçu de façon à servir de ressource que les médecins peuvent garder à portée de main et consulter rapidement et facilement.
The objective of the meeting was to discuss the improvement of the quality of the information on causes of death in Brazil, with the participation of the three spheres of government, civil society, universities, and international institutions. This report summarises the main outcomes of the meeting, including each of the main sessions, comments from participants, and links to additional resources.
Video by Dr Chamika Senanayake (Sri Lanka). More info: https://crvsgateway.info/SmartVA-DHIS2-Integration-Sri-Lanka-e-SmartVA-~2402
If you collect data using WHO 2016, this video will show you how to use SmartVA to analyse and assign the probable cause of death. It's easy, Roger Ward, Data Systems Analyst from the University of Melbourne's Data for Health Initiative explains.
How did verbal autopsy (VA) work evolve from research settings? Riley Hazard, University of Melbourne Research Assistant, shares a brief overview of how verbal autopsy has continued to evolve as a result of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative. More on SmartVA: crvsgateway.info/SmartVA~547
The first in a series of papers published by the WHO Bulletin looking at how the health sector can contribute towards strengthening CRVS systems and increasing birth and death registration coverage.
Authors: AbouZahr C, Bratschi MW, Cobos Munoz D, Santon R, Richards N, Riley I, Setel P
Publication date: April 2018
Resource type: CRVS peer-reviewed publication
Source: Bulletin of the World Health Organization http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.18.211086
An improved version of SmartVA Analyze (including full source code) has been released.
Over the past decades, the health sector has forged a widespread network of health facilities and community health workers who carry out key public health interventions, aiming to reach the most marginalized populations with life-saving interventions. In many countries, health networks offer untapped potential to leverage health services for the notification and registration of births and deaths.
Authors: Jackson D, Wenz K, Muniz M, Abouzahr C, Schmider A, Braschi MW, Kassam N, Diaz T, Mwamba R, Setel P, Mills S
Publication date: December 2018
Resource type: CRVS peer-reviewed publication
Source: Bulletin of the World Health Organization http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.18.213090
Mortality statistics derived from cause of death data are an important source of information for population health monitoring, priority setting and planning. However, the quality of cause of death data is poor. In August 2016, the Ministry of Health of Perú decided to make two specific interventions to improve cause of death data: to introduce an online death certification system and to train doctors in standard death certification practices. This study demonstrates how the two interventions improved the correctness of death certificates. The study also provides evidence on necessary changes to the training program to address the poor certification practices that have remained after implementation of the online system.
Authors: Miki J, Rampatige R, Richards N, Adair T, Cortez-Escalante J, Vargas-Herrera J
Publication date: December 2018
Resource type: CRVS peer-reviewed publication
Related resources: Fellowship profile: Assessing the impact of death certification interventions in Peru
Source: BMC Public Health https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-6264-1
Between November 2017 and January 2018, Janet Miki from the Ministry of Health in Perú, came to the University of Melbourne to receive support in conducting a study assessing the impact of two death certification interventions to improve cause of death data in Perú. This fellowship profile documents Janet’s experiences whilst at Melbourne, including what she worked on, what she learned, and what impact this might have on improving the quality of mortality data in Perú.
Author: Miki J
Publication date: December 2018
Resource type: CRVS Fellowship reports and profiles
Related resources: CRVS country overview: Perú
Watch videos with Filipino CRVS stakeholders on how the country is working to strengthen their CRVS system and improve their cause of death data.
Dr Ferchito L Avelino, Officer in Charge at the Philippine Department of Health, Epidemiology Bureau shares his previous experience as a Rural Health Physician and the challenges he experienced certifying deaths, at the Smart Verbal Autopsy Evaluation Workshop in Manila, February 2018.
Ecuador ha demostrado su compromiso con la mejora de los registros civil y de las estadísticas vitales (RCEV) a pesar de tener recursos limitados y esfuerzos duplicados en la producción de estadísticas vitales. Este breve video es una descripción general de CRVS en el país, y destaca los videos que proporcionan una comprensión más profunda de su sistema y mejoras como parte de la Iniciativa de Datos para la Salud de Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Reunirse con Mr Mgs Roberto Castillo Añazco, Director Ejecutivo, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo; Juan Cortez-Escalante, Coordinador de Pais, Datos para la Iniciativa de Salud; Profesor Alan Lopez, Director, Iniciativa de Datos para la Salud, Universidad de Melbourne; Profesor Deirdre McLaughlin, Subdirector, Iniciativa de Datos para la Salud, Universidad de Melbourne. Filmado en Septiembre de 2018 en Quito, Ecuador. Meeting with Mr Mgs Roberto Castillo Añazco, Executive Director, National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC); Juan Cortez-Escalante, Country Coordinator, Data for Health Initiative; Professor Alan Lopez, Director, Data for Health Initiative, University of Melbourne; Professor Deirdre McLaughlin, Deputy Director, Data for Health Initiative, University of Melbourne. Filmed in September 2018 in Quito, Ecuador. Video in Spanish with English subtitles.
Watch videos with Ecuador's CRVS stakeholders on how the country is working to strengthen their CRVS system and improve their cause of death data.
Entrevista con Dr. Caterina Yepes, Coordinadora de Campo Proyecto de Causas de Mortalidad Poco Útiles, Iniciativa de Datos para la Salud. Interview with Dr Caterina Yepes, Field Coordinator of the Garbage Codes Project, Data for Health Initiative. Filmed in September 2018. Video in Spanish with English subtitles.
Entrevista con Soledad Carrera, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC) y Juan Cortez-Escalante, Asesor Técnico en RCEV por la Universidad de Melbourne. Interview with Soledad Carrera, National Institute of Statistics and Census (Ecuador) and Juan Cortez-Escalante, CRVS Technical Advisor, University of Melbourne. Video in Spanish with English subtitles.
Entrevista con Mónica García-Pérez, Coordinadora de Campo Proyecto de Autopsias Verbales, Iniciativa de Datos para la Salud. Interview with Mónica García-Pérez, Field Coordinator, Verbal Autopsy Project, Data for Health Initiative. Video in Spanish with English subtitles.
Raquel Barbosa from the Ministry of Health in Brazil, and Fellow at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative in University of Melbourne, explains how the country is working to improve the 33% percent of 'garbage', or unusable, for the purposes of public health planning. Video in Portuguese with English subtitles.
Since 2017, the China CDC has cooperated with Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health to conduct a SmartVA (Smart Verbal Autopsy) pre-test in order to test whether the intervention was suitable for implementation in China. Assistant Professor Xin Ying Zeng from China CDC and Dr Hang Li, Technical Advisor at the University of Melbourne discuss how well SmartVA captures underlying cause of death for people who died at home.
It is very important that the underlying cause of death (UCOD) is correctly determined and accurately recorded for each death to get an understanding of the real causes of death
A VA costing and budgeting tool has been developed to help determine the financial and economic costs of implementing routine VA, based on six activity groups: start-up activities, governance activities, program management, supervision, refresher training, VA delivery and analysis.
Publication date: February 2019
Resource type: CRVS best-practice and advocacy
Related resources: Developing a verbal autopsy costing and budgeting tool; VA Costing Tool
Brazil has implemented several measures to improve the registration of vital events including: developing a new 'garbage code' study protocol to evaluate death certificates; training doctors on how to correctly complete death certificates, and assessing the accuracy of mortality data from forensic institutes
Publication date: February 2019
Resource type: CRVS country report
Related resources: CRVS country profile: Brazil
Between January and March 2018, Mr Francis Yeji, from the Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the Ghana Health Service, spent time at the Universities of Basel and Melbourne to analyse results from the verbal autopsy pre-test conducted in Ghana in 2017. This CRVS fellowship report describes the approach to verbal autopsy implementation used by Ghana, results from the pre-test in the Bongo District and implications this has for future phases, and how the results were used to inform the sampling strategy for Ghana, as part of national scale-up.
Author: Yeji, Francis
Publication date: February 2019
Resource type: CRVS Fellowship reports and profiles
Related resources: Ghana: Developing a CRVS-VA management dashboard
Zambia's rate of death registration coverage has been low as a result of the law that requires all deaths that are registered to have a cause. The Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative in Zambia is using verbal autopsy methods to count deaths that occur outside of health settings, in order to get a better understanding of who is dying of what in the country, which will better inform preventative health policies and plans.
<p>SMoL was developed by WHO in collaboration with the University of Oslo for collecting cause of death (COD) information. SMoL contains a simplified list of 106 CODs that physicians can use to certify the COD. </p>
Luiz Fernando from the IBGE (Brazilian Federal Institute of Geography and Statistics) and Fellow at the University of Melbourne Data for Health Initiative explains his work to link civil registration and vital statistics data in Brazil to estimate completeness.
Jose Andrade from the National Statistical Office in Ecuador and Fellow at the University of Melbourne Data for Health Initiative explains his work to estimate the completeness of death registration at the national and subnational levels.
Dr Chamika Senanyake from the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka and Fellow at the University of Melbourne Data for Health Initiative explains his work integrating Smart Verbal Autopsy (SmartVA) and DHIS-2 in Sri Lanka. Dr Senanyake has created a tutorial video about integration that you can view here: https://youtu.be/E66tnNV2rko
Marjorie Villaver from the Philippine Statistics Authority explains her work to estimate completeness of death registration and assess the quality of cause of death data at the national and subnational levels.
There are many challenges to death registration and certification in the Philippines including a gap in training physicians to correctly certify the underlying cause of death in medical school. Three doctors in the Philippines share how their organisations are working to improve the quality of death certification through the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative.
Edith Ramos Orcilla, Assistant National Statistician and Aurora T Reolalas, Chief Statistical Specialist at the Philippine Statistical Authority share how the has been able to drastically improve the speed of which they report their cause of death data, which is vital for health policymaking and planning.
Historically, determining the underlying cause of death for people who die in community has been “pretty hard,” says Dr Clemencia Dilag Bondol, President of the Municipal Association of Municipal Health Officers. But now that municipal health officers and physicians in community settings are using SmartVA as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative to diagnose deaths, the process has become much more simple.
For the first time, SmartVA is being used by physicians, to diagnose the underlying cause of death in community settings. Verbal autopsy expert, Associate Professor Rohina Joshi from the University of Melbourne explains.
Video subido con permiso del Ministerio de Salud, Perú.
Between July and October 2018, Majorie “Joy” Villaver, a supervising statistical specialist of the Philippine Statistics Authority, came to the University of Melbourne to assess the quality and completeness of birth and death registration, as well as the quality of cause of death data using the ANACONDA tool. This fellowship profile documents Joy’s experiences while at Melbourne, including what she worked on, what she found, and what impacts this might have on improving the civil registration and vital statistics system in the Philippines.
Author: Villaver M
Publication date: December 2018
Resource type: CRVS Fellowship reports and profiles
Related resources: CRVS country overview: Philippines
Between August and October 2018, José Andrade, from the Vital Statistics Department of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) in Ecuador, came to the University of Melbourne to receive support in calculating the completeness of birth and death registration in Ecuador. His fellowship involved using surveys, censuses, and population projections to do so, and these methods are described here, along with implications for the CRVS system of Ecuador.
Author: Andrade J
Publication date: December 2018
Resource type: CRVS Fellowship reports and profiles
Related resources: CRVS country overview: Ecuador
Outlines six different areas of potential collaboration between health and demographic observatories and CRVS systems, including challenges and successes.
Publication date: November 2018
Resource type: CRVS best-practice and advocacy
Related resources: Maximising synergies between health observatories and CRVS: Guidance for INDEPTH HDSS sites and CRVS stakeholders
Partners: Swiss TPH, INDEPTH Network
The Philippines has shown ongoing commitment to strengthening its civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system. It is a relatively mature and functioning system, but there are many aspects that could function better if they were strengthened. In-depth videos at:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQfUxrZQ_vdgiO2kaiSlOi2XvaoIcVe7u
What was the civil registration and vital statistics system in the Philippines like before the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative started, and what impact has the initiative had? Interview with Lene Mikkelsen, Senior Technical Advisor to the Philippines from the University of Melbourne, Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative.
Describes the development, testing, and potential impact of a mobile application for doctors to improve the recording of cause of death in Sri Lanka.
Publication date: September 2018
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Summary: Improving the quality of mortality statistics in Sri Lanka
Ecuador has demonstrated its commitment to civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) improvement in spite of the country’s limited resources and duplicative efforts in the production of vital statistics. This short video is an overview of CRVS in the country, and highlights videos that provide a more in-depth understanding of their system and improvements as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative.
Mire videos con las partes interesadas de CRVS de Ecuador sobre cómo está trabajando el país para fortalecer su sistema de RCEV y mejorar sus datos de causa de muerte.
Civil registration is the system by which a government records vital events such as births, deaths and marriages.
This resource was developed to help medical schools incorporate medical certification of cause of death into their undergraduate medical curriculum.
Author: Rampatige R, Gamage S
Publication date: November 2018
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Handbook for doctors on cause of death certification
This course has been developed to help physicians and medical students to correctly certify COD using standard death certification practices that comply with the international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems. It forms part of a package of resources that includes case studies and references for self-directed learning, a number of practical resources (including guidance on how to assess the quality of death certificates), and this facilitator’s manual for running workshops.
Author: University of Melbourne
Publication date: January 2020 (update)
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Handbook for doctors on cause of death certification
Dr Fatimo Marinho from Brazil's Ministry of Health explains why countries need to help one another to improve health systems and information. Filmed at the meeting on strengthening the quality of information on causes of death in Brazil in October 2017. Filmed in Portuguese with English subtitles. O Dr. Fatimo Marinho, do Ministério da Saúde do Brasil, explica por que os países precisam se ajudar mutuamente para melhorar os sistemas e informações de saúde. Filmado na reunião sobre fortalecimento da qualidade das informações sobre causas de morte no Brasil em Outubro de 2017.
Peru has low coverage of deaths with a cause (54%) and about 30% of causes of death are classified as poorly-defined or not very useful for the formulation of public policies. In response to these problems, the Ministry of Health together with other government agencies, with the support of D4H, is implementing the National Death Registry Information System (SINADEF). The objective of this article is to describe the process of strengthening the mortality information system in Peru, focused on the implementation of SINADEF. Since the implementation of SINADEF in August 2016 until July 2018, 28,407 users of the SINADEF application have been created and a total of 122,411 deaths have been registered. The quality of data recording, including the cause of death, has been improved, while low coverage of deaths with a cause of death still persists.
Authors: Vargas-Herrera J, Ruiz KP, Nunez GG, Ohno JM, Perez-Lu, JE, Huarcaya WV, Clapham B, Cortez-Escalante J
Publication date: October 2018
Resource type: CRVS peer-reviewed publication
Related resources: Peru: An exceptional example of CRVS system advancement
Source: Rev Peru Med Exp Salud Publica. 2018; 35(3):505-14
For users of ANACONDA (statisticians and/or analysts in health and statistics departments, researchers, or other experts working with mortality data).
Authors: Mikkelsen L, Lopez AD
Publication date: October 2017
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Course prospectus: ANACONDA
Before Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative launched in Bangladesh, there was very little information on who was dying of what, which is needed to guide public health policies and plans. Watch videos with Bangladesh's CRVS stakeholders on how the country is working to strengthen their CRVS system and improve their cause of death data.
Before Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative launched in Bangladesh, there was very little information on who was dying of what, which is needed to guide public health policies and plans. Interview with Dr Toufiq Shawon, Resident Medical Officer, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Dr Hafiz Chowdhury, Technical Advisor, Sri Lanka, University of Melbourne; Dr Razi Uddin, Assistant Chief Statistical Officer; Management Information System; Directorate General of Health Services. Filmed in Melbourne Australia in December 2018.
Watch videos with Ghana's CRVS stakeholders on how the country is working to strengthen their CRVS system and improve their cause of death data.
Tanzania has demonstrated an increased commitment to civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system improvement, as reflected in its five-year country CRVS strategy (2015 to 2020). However, key stakeholders and governance mechanisms for CRVS are poorly linked, resulting in incomplete and inadequate data sources for informing policy-making. Watch videos with Tanzania's CRVS stakeholders on how the country is working to strengthen their CRVS system and improve their cause of death data.
Watch videos with Rwanda's CRVS stakeholders on how the country is working to strengthen their CRVS system and improve their cause of death data.
Previously Myanmar's health policies and planning were "wrong," said Union Minister of the Ministry of Health and Sports, Dr Myint Htwe. Now, Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative has enabled Myanmar to generate reliable evidence about who is dying of what in the country to better inform disease prevention policy. In July 2018 in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar at the High Level Technical Review Meeting, Dr Myint Htwe spoke about the country's commitments to the sustainability of civil registration and vital statistics improvements.
The Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health (D4H) Initiative is assisting the Government of Myanmar to improve the capture and transmission of cause of death data – especially data on rural deaths – to improve the overall quality and completeness of mortality statistics. Myanmar’s CRVS improvement efforts centre around making full use of the existing midwifery system, improving on aspects of the birth and death reporting process. As part of D4H, Myanmar has begun training midwives to perform verbal autopsies, or VAs, using digital tablets. These interview were filmed in Myanmar in July 2018 in Burmese (English subtitles).
Watch videos with Brazil's CRVS stakeholders on how the country is working to strengthen their CRVS system and improve their cause of death data.
Assista a vídeos com as partes interessadas do RCEB do Brasil sobre como o país está trabalhando para fortalecer seu sistema de RCEV e melhorar seus dados de causa de morte.
O professor Luiz Fernando Ferraz da Silva, da Universidade de São Paulo, explica como o serviço de inspeção post-mortem no Brasil determina a causa básica de morte. Filmado na reunião sobre fortalecimento da qualidade das informações sobre causas de morte no Brasil em outubro de 2017. Vídeo em português com legendas em inglês. Professor Luiz Fernando Ferraz da Silva from the University of São Paulo explains how the post-mortem inspection service in Brazil determines the underlying cause of death. Filmed at the meeting on strengthening the quality of information on causes of death in Brazil in October 2017. Video in Portuguese with English subtitles.
This paper outlines three sample registration systems from China, India, and Indonesia. The history and principles behind the systems, their operational aspects, vital statistical output and quality of data, along with their strengths and weaknesses and intended future direction, are presented. This is followed by a summary overview highlighting key aspects of each system and their similarities and differences.
Authors: Sorchik R, Kosen S, Mahapatra P, Yin P, Zhou M
Publication date: February 2019
Resource type: CRVS analyses and evaluations
Related resources: A framework for evaluating national CRVS systems as baseline
Between July and September 2018, Chamika Senanayake, from the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine came to the University of Melbourne to receive support in developing a SmartVA DHIS2 integration platform that would streamline all manual CRVS data flow processes into a single automated process in Sri Lanka. This report describes the technical process Chamika developed, which includes five main steps: setting up a DHIS2 instance and testing; analysing org-unit hierarchies; importing VA metadata; configuring the script; and localising the ODK Collect form.
Author: Senanayake CH
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS Fellowship reports and profiles
Related resources: CRVS country overview: Sri Lanka
In Perú, only 54 per cent of deaths have a COD recorded, and about 30 per cent of these causes are classified as poorly-defined or not useful for the formulation of public policy. In response to this, key CRVS partners developed the National Death Registry Information System (SINADEF), which is an application allowing doctors to complete death certificates in real-time immediately after verifying that a death has occurred.
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS country report
Related resources: Preliminary results of strengthening the national death registry information system
Summarises the 10 main steps in ANACONDA, including key outputs and data quality checks for mortality and cause of death statistics.
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Course prospectus: ANACONDA
Summarises the 10 main steps in ANACONDA, including key outputs and data quality checks for mortality and cause of death statistics.
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Course prospectus: ANACONDA
These are generic guidelines about how to certify the cause of death, written for physicians and medical students, particularly in developing countries.
Author: University of Melbourne
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Medical certification of cause of death: Quick reference guide
Birth and death registration rates in Zambia are very low, which is a big problem for health prioritisation and planning says Dr Yuta Yokobori, who works with both the Japanese and Zambian health systems. Dr Yokobori shares some of Zambia's plans to improve their birth and death information.
To improve the underlying cause of death diagnosis for death certification, Sri Lanka has created a mobile app that new doctors can use to learn the importance of this diagnosis and provide easy reference.
While the completeness of death registration is over 95% in Sri Lanka, the quality of the cause of death certification is poor, which is key for health policy and planning. About 42% of Sri Lankan deaths occur in the home, so to capture cause of death, local midwives are adding this data collection using tablets and family interviews to their list of regular duties. Interview with Lene Mikkelsen, Technical Advisor, University of Melbourne; Dr Lakshmi Somatunga, Additional Secretary/Public Health Services, Ministry of Health; Sathasivam Sridharan, Deputy Director-General of Health Services, Management Development and Planning Unit of the Ministry of Health; Dr Vindya Kumarapeli, Research Fellow, University of Melbourne at the University of Melbourne in December 2018.
Although largely manual, the Sri Lankan registration system manages to register most births and deaths. However it is slow in compiling data from all the registration points, coding cause of death data, and releasing vital statistics. Sri Lankan CRVS experts weigh in on how the country is improving their system as part of the Data for Health Initiative.
Between February and May 2018, Marc Hagenimana from the Rwanda Biomedical Centre came to the University of Melbourne to review and document experiences in introducing routine VA as part of CRVS system-strengthening in Rwanda. His study aimed to generate valuable evidence on the lessons learned, and inform stakeholders on the sustainability and scalability of the program. This report describes changes in the notification and registration of deaths after the introduction of VA, and assesses the plausibility of mortality data provided through VA.
Author: Hagenimana M
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS Fellowship reports and profiles
Related resources: Strengthening civil registration processes and improving vital statistics in Rwanda
In 2018, Dr Mir Saiful Islam, from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh, came to the University of Melbourne as part of the D4H Fellowship program. This fellowship report describes the patterns of cause of death in Bangladesh, as derived through the process of verbal autopsy (VA). It also assesses the plausibility of the VA data by comparing it with other sources of mortality data available in the country. Finally, the report provides an overview of the experiences of VA interviewers and supervisors.
Author: Islam S
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS Fellowship reports and profiles
Related resources: Bangladesh: A successful journey towards CRVS improvement
This user guide provides program planners and managers with instructions for using the accompanying data collection tool and the CRVS performance dashboard template.
Author: Cobos Muñoz D, Sant C, Renggli S, de Savigny D.
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: CRVS performance metrics data collection tool; CRVS performance metrics indicator guide; Assessing the performance of CRVS systems
Accurate mortality, fertility and population information are fundamental for program and policy development and monitoring in health and other sectors. The most suitable data source for local death and birth data is a well-functioning CRVS system, but these are underdeveloped in Latin America, with varying levels of incompleteness between and within countries. The Small Area Demographic Estimation in Latin America Workshop was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 19-20 March 2018. The workshop brought together regional and international demographic experts to discuss methods and approaches to improve the evidence base for mortality, fertility and population at the small area level in Latin America.
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS country report
Related resources: Summary: The importance of routinely measuring birth and death registration completeness
This document presents a clear description of the generic indicators that could be used as metrics to assess CRVS process performance. It also describes the data required, the method of measurement or potential approximations as well as the data sources and alternative if these sources are not available.
Author: Cobos Muñoz D, Sant C, Renggli S, de Savigny D.
Publication date: March 2019 (V1.7)
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: CRVS performance metrics data collection tool; CRVS performance metrics user guide; Assessing the performance of CRVS systems
Having a strong monitoring system is essential for any program to function. CRVS systems are complex adaptive systems and as such they perform hundreds of activities every day to register vital events, to provide legal documents to citizens and to produce vital statistics. To monitor CRVS systems we need to understand their complexity and identify appropriate metrics that can be used routinely to assess their performance.The purpose of this data collection tool is to facilitate the process of data collection in a consolidated and systematic way. The tool consists of 18 worksheets in a single Excel file (.xls). It is formulated specifically to calculate and visualise the performance indicators at each health system level. This tool can be customised to the country’s context and users can decide the level of detail they want to obtain. Depending on the data available, it is possible to input performance data from a sample or from a whole national information system.
Publication date: March 2019 (V8.2.8)
Resource type: CRVS tool
Related resources: CRVS performance metrics user guide; CRVS performance metrics indicator guide; Assessing the performance of CRVS systems
Before 2010, the Solomon Islands had no birth, death and cause of death information on which to base their health policies and plans. Now through the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative, the country can act on pressing health issues like non-communicable diseases which they only could guess were issues before. Interview with Matt Reeve, Technical Advisor, University of Melbourne; Seraphina Elisha, Principal Medical Statistician; Rodley Ruskin, CRVS Country Coordinator in December 2018 in Melbourne, Australia.
From February to March 2020, David Lenga from the Ministry of Health in Tanzania undertook a CRVS Fellowship to assist with national plans to scale up verbal autopsy. This profile documents David's personal experiences and outcomes, and the broader impact his Fellowship might have on improving the quality of mortality data in Tanzania.
Watch videos with CRVS experts on Solomon Islands interventions to improve their cause of death information.
CRVS performance metrics: for identifying and quantifying inefficiencies in CRVS performance
Have you been trained on ANACONDA? Our new template assists countries to write reports about the quality of mortality and cause of death data in their countries or a sub-region using ANACONDA to calculate indicators and produce charts and tables.
This user guide provides program planners and managers with instructions for using the accompanying CRVS Costing Tool. The purpose of the CRVS Costing Tool is to help you to determine the costs of implementing CRVS systems.
Author: Cobos Muñoz D, Sant C, Renggli S, de Savigny D
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: CRVS Costing Tool; CRVS Costing Tool: Report template; Developing and testing a CRVS costing tool
The purpose of the CRVS Budgeting & Costing Tool is to help planners and managers to determine the costs of implementing CRVS systems.
Author: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the University of Melbourne
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS tool
Related resources: CRVS Costing Tool; CRVS Costing Tool: User guide
The purpose of the CRVS Costing & Budgeting Tool is to help planners and managers to determine the costs of implementing CRVS systems. This Tool can be customised to country context and covers all aspects of a CRVS system comprising start-up costs, training costs, community-level service delivery costs, as well as support, supervision, and management costs at all administrative levels. Additionally, the Tool has a budgeting element that can be used to estimate budgets for CRVS systems.
Author: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the University of Melbourne
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS tool
Related resources: CRVS Costing Tool Report Template; CRVS Costing Tool: User guide
This CRVS technical outcome series paper describes the CRVS Costing Tool that has been developed as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health (D4H) Initiative by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the University of Melbourne.
Authors: Cobos Muñoz D, Sant Fruchtman C, Renggli S, de Savigny D
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS best-practice and advocacy
Related resources: CRVS Costing Tool; CRVS Costing Tool: User guide; CRVS Costing Tool Report Template
Countries can benefit from new tools that assist in determining the costs of implementing CRVS systems, and provide guidance and calculation on how large verbal autopsy sampling sizes should be in order to ensure the results are representative of the country.
This guide has been produced to assist those who are responsible for training interviewers and supervisors on all aspects of verbal autopsy (VA) using electronic collection methods, specifically, the SmartVA questionnaire and analytical software. It provides advice regarding preparatory activities and documents, slide presentations and equipment necessary to run the different sessions.
Author: The University of Melbourne
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: SmartVA Interviewer's Manual; SmartVA Technical User Guide
From January to March 2019, Dr Chen Lei from Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (SCDC) came to the University of Melbourne to receive support in analysing medical records reviews and analysis of verbal autopsy (VA) data. This fellowship profile documents Chen Lei’s experiences whilst at Melbourne, including what she worked on, what she learned, and what impact this might have on improving the quality of mortality data in Shanghai.
Author: Dr Chen Lei
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS Fellowship reports and profiles
Related resources: CRVS country overview: China (Shanghai)
This CRVS technical outcome series paper describes the CRVS performance assessment toolkit that has been developed as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health (D4H) Initiative by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and funded by the University of Melbourne.
Authors: Daniel Cobos Muñoz, Carmen Sant Fruchtman, Sabine Renggli, and Don deSavigny, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel
Publication date: April 2019
Resource type: CRVS analyses and evaluations
Related resources: CRVS performance metrics: User guide; CRVS performance metrics: Indicator guideline; CRVS performance metrics: Data collection tool
Este manual proporciona información genérica a los entrenadores master VA acerca de cómo entrenar entrevistadores y supervisores VA. Ha sido desarrollado para ser implementado como parte de un paquete de recursos y herramientas más amplio. Como tal, se recomienda a los países, adaptar el manual para atender las necesidades y el contexto local. Esto debería ser hecho en conjunto con su Equipo de Implementación de País D4H con anterioridad a cualquier actividad VA.
Author: The University of Melbourne
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: SmartVA Interviewer's Manual; SmartVA Technical User Guide
The purpose of the VA Costing Tool is to help planners and managers to determine the costs of implementing verbal autopsy systems. The Tool can be customised to the country’s context and covers all aspects of a VA system, including start-up costs, training costs, community-level service delivery costs, as well as governance, supervision, and management costs at all administrative levels. Additionally, the Tool has a budgeting and a modelling component. The former can be used to estimate budgets for VA systems, whereas the latter can be used to model different VA implementation scenarios. NOTE: clicking on the 'download resource' button will automatically save the Excel file to your PC.
Author: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the University of Melbourne
Publication date: March 2019 (V1.1.2)
Resource type: CRVS tool
Related resources: VA Costing Tool: Report template; VA Costing Tool: User guide; Developing a VA costing and budgeting tool; Summary
This template can be used to summarise key outputs from the VA Costing Tool, to assist planners and managers to determine the costs of implementing verbal autopsy systems. The template is based on three key areas of the Tool: total program costs for baseline year by activity and input type; average costs per VA; and key drivers of costs. NOTE: clicking on the 'download resource' button will automatically save the Word document to your PC.
Author: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the University of Melbourne
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS tool
Related resources: VA Costing Tool; VA Costing Tool: User guide; Developing a VA costing and budgeting tool
This user guide provides program planners and managers with instructions for using the accompanying VA Costing Tool. The purpose of the VA Costing Tool is to help you to determine the costs of implementing VA within CRVS systems, including identifying key cost drivers and estimating total budget requirements.
Author: Cobos Muñoz D, Sant C, Renggli S, de Savigny D
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: VA Costing Tool; VA Costing Tool: Report template; Developing a VA costing and budgeting tool
This document provides guidance on how to use the rapid assessment tool. Information generated from the assessment would be helpful for ministry of health staff, hospital administrators, health information officers or medical record officers to determine the quality of death certificates. The tool can be used by a doctor who is trained in death certification practices and understands the ICD-10 death certification rules.
Authors: Rampatige R, Gamage S, Richards N, Riley I, Wijesekera N.
Publication date: February 2019 (update)
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Assessing the quality of death certificates: Rapid tool
This document provides guidance on how to use the rapid assessment tool. Information generated from the assessment would be helpful for ministry of health staff, hospital administrators, health information officers or medical record officers to determine the quality of death certificates. The tool can be used by a doctor who is trained in death certification practices and understands the ICD-10 death certification rules.
Authors: Rampatige R, Gamage S, Richards N, Riley I, Wijesekera N.
Publication date: February 2019 (update)
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Assessing the quality of death certificates: Rapid tool
This document provides guidance on how to use the rapid assessment tool. Information generated from the assessment would be helpful for ministry of health staff, hospital administrators, health information officers or medical record officers to determine the quality of death certificates. The tool can be used by a doctor who is trained in death certification practices and understands the ICD-10 death certification rules.
Authors: Rampatige R, Gamage S, Richards N, Riley I, Wijesekera N.
Publication date: February 2019 (update)
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Assessing the quality of death certificates: Rapid tool
These are generic guidelines about how to certify the cause of death, written for physicians and medical students, particularly in developing countries.
Author: University of Melbourne
Publication date: February 2017
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Medical certification of cause of death: Quick reference guide
This resource was developed to help medical schools incorporate medical certification of cause of death into their undergraduate medical curriculum.
Author: Rampatige R, Gamage S
Publication date: February 2019
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Handbook for doctors on cause of death certification
This course has been developed to help physicians and medical students to correctly certify COD using standard death certification practices that comply with the international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems. It forms part of a package of resources that includes case studies and references for self-directed learning, a number of practical resources (including guidance on how to assess the quality of death certificates), and this facilitator’s manual for running workshops.
Author: University of Melbourne
Publication date: February 2019
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Handbook for doctors on cause of death certification
Note: The English version of the Medical certification of cause of death: Facilitator's guide has been updated, and these updates are not reflected in this translation. Please see the updated English version on the CRVS Gateway, or contact the University of Melbourne, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Improvement, to request an editable version of the English document for translation.
This tool is designed to assess the quality of death certification practices by checking for common errors in death certificates.
Author: University of Melbourne
Publication date: July 2020 update)
Resource type: CRVS tool
Related resources: Assessing the quality of death certificates: Guidance for the rapid tool
These are generic guidelines about how to certify the cause of death, written for physicians and medical students, particularly in developing countries.
Author: University of Melbourne
Publication date: February 2017
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Medical certification of cause of death: Quick reference guide
This resource was developed to help medical schools incorporate medical certification of cause of death into their undergraduate medical curriculum.
Author: Rampatige R, Gamage S
Publication date: November 2018
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Handbook for doctors on cause of death certification
As a part of establishing a functional CRVS system in Bangladesh, the Kaliganj Model for birth and death registration was implemented from April 2016 to December 2017 in the Kaliganj sub-district. In this model, health and family planning field staff notified local registries at union council of births and deaths using a standard operating procedure. This document reports on research that aimed to understand if and how the Kaliganj Model improved birth and death notification and registration. This report provides policy-makers in the Government of Bangladesh with research findings, insights and recommendations, so they can begin solidifying CRVS in the country
Author: Mukut MAA
Publication date: March 2019
Resource type: CRVS Fellowships reports and profiles
Related resources: Bangladesh: A successful journey towards CRVS improvement - Fellowship report: Integrating VA in routine mortality reporting in Bangladesh - Fellowship report: Assessing the quality of medical certification of cause of death in Bangladesh
This course has been developed to help physicians and medical students to correctly certify COD using standard death certification practices that comply with the international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems. It forms part of a package of resources that includes case studies and references for self-directed learning, a number of practical resources (including guidance on how to assess the quality of death certificates), and this facilitator’s manual for running workshops.
Author: University of Melbourne
Publication date: December 2018
Resource type: CRVS technical guide
Related resources: Handbook for doctors on cause of death certification
Note: The English version of the Medical certification of cause of death: Facilitator's guide has been updated, and these updates are not reflected in this translation. Please see the updated English version on the CRVS Gateway, or contact the University of Melbourne, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Improvement, to request an editable version of the English document for translation.
Dr Fatima Marinho, Technical Advisor in Brazil for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative, shares her thoughts on how better data is achieved through working together, to build a better world.
Interview with Dr Mohsen Naghavi, Professor of Global Health at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Filmed in October 2017 during the Meeting on Improving the Quality of Information on Causes of Death in Brazil in Recife, Brazil.
The D4H team at the University of Melbourne spoke to the Brazilian ANACONDA trainer and statistician for the Ministry of Health, Ana Claúdia Medeiros de Souza, about initial feedback of the ANACONDA tool in October 2017.
Laureate Professor Alan Lopez AC, CRVS Technical Director of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative from the University of Melbourne describes interventions that Colombia will use to improve their cause of death data.
Publication date: February 2017
Resource type: CRVS course prospectus
Related resources: ANACONDA Quick reference guide: 10 steps
ANACONDA course introduction. Presenter: Senior Technical Advisor, Dr Lene Mikkelsen
Publication date: October 2017
Resource type: CRVS course prospectus
Related resources: Summary: The importance of routinely measuring birth and death registration completeness
Completeness of birth and death registration course introduction. Presenter: Principal Research Fellow, Dr Tim Adair
Enterprise architecture/business process mapping course introduction. Presenter: Senior Technical Advisor, Dr Carla AbouZahr
Publication date: July 2020
Resource type: CRVS course prospectus
Related resources: Intervention: Enterprise architecture and process mapping
Publication date: October 2017 (V2 July 2019)
Resource type: CRVS course prospectus
Related resources: Intervention: Mortality coding
Publication date: January 2018
Resource type: CRVS course prospectus
Related resources: Action guide on implementing automated coding (Iris)
Medical certification of cause of death course introduction. Presenter: Senior Technical Advisor, Dr Tim Moore
Verbal autopsy course introduction. Presenter: Technical Manager, Sonja Firth