Enhancing Disease Surveillance and Response Capacity for the Pacific Community (SPC)

The Pacific Community (SPC) plays a critical role in monitoring and issuing alerts for emerging diseases across the Pacific region. However, the existing systems heavily relied on manual data collection—ranging from scanning news and social media to coordinating with individual countries—which resulted in inefficiencies and delays in disease alert dissemination.

To address these challenges, our team partnered with the Pacific Community to modernize and streamline their disease tracking and alert infrastructure. We deployed real-time monitoring tools capable of scanning global news sources and social media for specific disease-related keywords, as defined by SPC. Based on the incoming data, we developed a robust alert system that enables faster and more reliable identification of potential health threats.

To ensure sustainability, we conducted hands-on training sessions with SPC personnel, enabling them to maintain and adapt the system independently over time. This capacity-building component was essential to embedding the technology within existing workflows and ensuring long-term impact.

The Pacific Community now benefits from a significantly more efficient and timely alert system. The enhanced platform not only reduces the time required for data processing but also allows SPC teams to allocate more resources to developing and implementing timely public health interventions, rather than focusing primarily on data collection and analysis.