Developing an evaluation framework for public health environmental surveillance: Protocol for an international, multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study

Public health environmental surveillance has evolved, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, with wastewater-based surveillance being a prominent example. As surveillance methods expand, it is important to have a robust evaluation of surveillance systems. This consensus study will develop an ev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 20; no. 5; p. e0310342
Main Authors: Manuel, Douglas G., Bennett, Carol, Brown, Emma, Buckeridge, David L., Freedhoff, Yoni, Funnell, Sarah, Ishtiaq, Farah, Wade, Matthew J., Moher, David
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 27.05.2025
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Biology and Life Sciences
Canada
Communicable diseases
Computer and Information Sciences
Consensus
Control
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19 - virology
Decision making
Delphi Technique
Environmental monitoring
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Epidemics
Evaluation
Health aspects
Health surveillance
Humans
Infectious diseases
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methods
Pandemics
Public Health
Public health administration
Public Health Surveillance - methods
Research and Analysis Methods
SARS-CoV-2
Social Sciences
Study Protocol
Surveillance systems
Wastewater
Wastewater - virology
Water sampling
Canada
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Public health environmental surveillance has evolved, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, with wastewater-based surveillance being a prominent example. As surveillance methods expand, it is important to have a robust evaluation of surveillance systems. This consensus study will develop an evaluation framework for public health environmental surveillance, informed by the expanding practice of wastewater-based surveillance during the pandemic. The public health environmental surveillance evaluation framework will be developed in five steps. In Step 1, a multinational and multidisciplinary executive group will be formed to guide the framework development process. In Step 2, candidate items will be generated by conducting relevant scoping reviews and consultation with the study executive group. In Step 3, an international electronic Delphi will be conducted over two rounds to develop consensus on items for the framework. In Step 4, the executive group will reconvene to finalize the evaluation framework, discuss standout items, and determine the dissemination strategies. Lastly, Step 5 will focus on disseminating the evaluation framework to all parties involved with or affected by wastewater-based surveillance using traditional and public-oriented methods. The Delphi consensus study will provide multidisciplinary and multinational consensus for the evaluation framework, by providing a set of minimum criteria required for the evaluation of public health environmental surveillance systems. The evaluation framework is intended to support the sustainability of environmental surveillance and improve its implementation, reliability, credibility, and value.
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Membership of the PHES-EF Executive Group is provided in the Acknowledgments.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0310342