In late August, the data management teams of all E-DETECT TB work package 6 participating countries met in London for a two-day meeting.  Consortium members from Sweden (KI), the Netherlands (KNCV) and the UK (PHE and UCL) gathered for database training and to agree next steps for the project.

On the first day, the Farr Institute of Health Informatics and Research, based at University College London (UCL), was the host. The Institute and the Data Safe Haven was introduced to the team and it was confirmed that the Institute will host the joint database. A thorough introduction to the set-up and security levels of the database was presented. All countries presented a sample of their country data and each country’s programmes for TB screening in migrants was discussed, in particular the routine data-collection.

Day two was hosted at Public Health England (PHE). The day started with a PHE presentation on data collected through pre-entry and LTBI screening. The rest of the day was spent discussing the definitions and coding of the variables that should be included in the modules in the database including their format, available categories and practical challenges in terms of data collection in each country. The variables were later adjusted to match the variables in ECDC’s TESSy database as closely as possible.

If you would like to learn more about the database, please read Professor Knut Lönnroth’s earlier article.