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About it
Meet the TiLS COVID-19 Task Force
With the Local Health Technology and Intelligence Task Force (TiLS COVID-19), our goal is to provide technical support to strengthen the capacity to respond to the public-health emergency caused by COVID-19 in Brazilian and Latin American municipalities. We aim to reinforce the concept of local epidemiological intelligence by preparing frontline professionals, with a focus on health surveillance.
The use of sustainable technologies is also part of this initiative, supporting the development of visual dashboards and other tools to be used by public-health teams in municipalities across Brazil and Latin America, both for pandemic response and routine monitoring. Click here to view the TiLS portfolio.
We count on the support of the Skoll Foundation, an organization founded in the United States in 1999 that supports, among other areas, pandemic response, and on a partnership with the Situation Room at the University of Brasília.
The TiLS COVID-19 network mobilizes other partner institutions, as well as ProEpi members, experts, and volunteers, to build a large task force for designing coordinated COVID-19 preparedness and response strategies.
+15
Countries
+851
Brazilian municipalities reached
+9
Support strategies
+12
Courses
+9000
professionals enrolled in online courses
+274
direct mentoring sessions
+94
group mentoring sessions
+3653
participants in group trainings
+57
health professionals trained to respond to public-health emergencies in Africa
Learn About Our MissionMore Videos
GET TO KNOW OUR ACTIONS
Learn more about the strategies and activities developed by the TiLS COVID-19 Task Force to support local health teams and other stakeholders in epidemiological surveillance focused on pandemic response.
Epi Night
An online forum that debates a well-defined COVID-19 topic and encourages audience interaction. Sessions are available on our YouTube channel.
A class-style session for those interested in current applied-epidemiology topics. Content is more in-depth so participants can dive into a specific subject. Episodes can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
WATCH
In-depth epidemiological content delivered in an accessible audio format. ProEpi’s podcast explores specialized topics in applied epidemiology. Episodes are published on various audio platforms.
LISTEN
An interactive, synchronous session held in partnership with the Echo Institute via the “A Look at Public Health” project. Focuses on problem-solving and case studies faced by frontline health professionals.
WATCH
The Resource Center organized by ProEpi brings together a collection of documents, in Portuguese and Spanish,guiding health professionals and the public on COVID-19, such as guides, booklets, references, and risk-communication materials produced by our task force and other organizations.
You can browse, download, use, and share all Resource Center documents.
ACCESS
A free tool providing reliable data and diverse information about your municipality’s COVID-19 situation and trends. Developed by the TiLS Task Force, this dashboard lets you visualize the data needed to support and guide municipalities in a coordinated pandemic response.
ACCESS
Consulting delivered by a specialized TiLS Task Force team to help managers and health professionals develop the best, most effective measures and actions for pandemic response, tailored to each locality’s specific needs. Sessions covered key topics such as response planning, health surveillance, geoprocessing, health-service organization, and biosafety.
This initiative equips municipalities with the tools to design optimal, context-specific pandemic response strategies. Led by TiLS tutors and technical experts, these sessions are specially organized for municipal health professionals, covering three core areas: monitoring dashboard use, spatial analysis, and data organization & presentation.
In partnership with Project Hope, this special training features live, free, fully online classes with a certificate of participation. The HOPE Cycles cover three core topics: Mental Health; COVID-19 Vaccination; and COVID-19 Preparedness & Response. This train-the-trainer model equips health professionals to share their learning with colleagues in their communities and workplaces during the pandemic.
Born from a long-held dream of health professionals and managers in the Cabo Verde archipelago, the country’s Field Epidemiology Training Program officially launched in June 2021 thanks to ProEpi’s mobilization and a partner network, including the National Institute of Public Health and the Ministry of Health of Cabo Verde, the WHO Regional Office in Cabo Verde, the West African Health Organization (WAHO), and the U.S. CDC (Atlanta). The initiative aims to strengthen local capacity for public-health emergency preparedness and response.
The Field Epidemiology Training Program of São Tomé and Príncipe (EpiSTP) began on October 25 with the launch of its first training cohort in Cantagalo District. This program is the result of a joint effort by the Ministry of Health, through the Directorate of Health Care Services and the Epidemiological Surveillance Department, the World Bank via the Project Administration Fiduciary Agency (Afap), the Brazilian Association of Field Epidemiology Professionals (ProEpi) with support from the Skoll Foundation, the UNDP, the U.S. CDC (Atlanta), and the WHO Regional Office in São Tomé and Príncipe.
NEWS
CoursesClick here to access them
The TiLS COVID-19 Task Force offers free, online courses designed to strengthen epidemiological intelligence in combating the pandemic. A range of options is available to build capacity for frontline health professionals.
Excel
A theoretical–practical course to train health professionals in using Microsoft Excel® spreadsheets. Its goal is to support epidemiological data analysis and thus enable monitoring and evaluation of health indicators.
Contingency Plan
Material designed for local health professionals and managers to plan and develop a contingency plan in 10 steps. For the TiLS COVID-19 Task Force, this is an essential resource for coordinated pandemic response and other public-health emergencies.
Contact Tracing
Resources developed for local health professionals engaged in COVID-19 response and anyone who wants to learn more about contact-tracing tools for future public-health emergencies.
Available in Portuguese and Spanish.
Vaccination Campaign Planning
The Vaccination Campaign Planning course was designed to meet the needs of health teams in the current COVID-19 immunization context. Launched in Portuguese and Spanish, it outlines 10 steps for high-performance vaccination microplanning.
Health Situation Room
Developed in partnership with the Brazil Foundation to train health teams in implementing and managing situation rooms in their municipalities. All content emphasizes the importance of accessing and processing high-quality information for strategic decision-making, demystifying these spaces and reinforcing the use of sustainable technologies and tools in health-crisis response.
Available in Portuguese and Spanish.
Diagnostic Testing
Six classes plus case studies. In this course, you will learn about the types of tests available, their advantages, limitations, and applicability; the sensitivity of each test and its ability to detect prior contact with the infectious agent; and the concepts and uses of molecular biology and rapid diagnostic tests.
Hope – Mental Health
In a train-the-trainer format, this course equips participants to replicate the knowledge for other health professionals.
Indicators Dashboard
Indicator dashboards are tools that advance understanding of health-service performance. Aimed at health professionals and managers working in the pandemic context, who already analyze data using applications such as Excel, Google Sheets, and Epi Info, this course demonstrates the steps to operate a dashboard via Power BI.
Biosafety in Field Activities in the Context of COVID-19
This course provides frontline health professionals conducting field or surveillance activities with the information needed to reduce contamination and transmission risks in their territory and work environment.
Power BI: From Basic to Intermediate
This course will equip frontline COVID-19 health professionals, in field operations or surveillance,with the information they need to reduce contamination and transmission risks in their region and workplace.
Health Indicator Analysis
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) defines health indicators as measures that signal relevant information about specific attributes and dimensions of individual or collective health status, as well as health-system performance.
This course trains health professionals in the development, monitoring, and evaluation of health indicators, with a focus on COVID-19.
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Epidemiological Bulletin Development
Epidemiological bulletins are practical tools for sharing information on case monitoring, outbreaks, or epidemics of diseases with regional, national, or international importance. They can also be used to report other public-health events of interest, including emerging or re-emerging agents or hazards.
TESTIMONIALS
Check out what some of our participants have to say:
“One word: delighted! Delighted with all the available data.”
Adriano de Moura Nascimento
Technical Advisor, Picos Municipal Health Department
“A roadmap for gathering municipal information makes us rethink various areas where we can intervene. The Intra-Action Review has already sparked an alignment of ideas on what will need to be reorganized in the municipality”
Estela da Silva Neves Elias
Health Secretary, Porto Murtinho (MS)
DEPOIMENTOS
Confira alguns relatos de quem já participa das nossas ações.
“The TiLS COVID-19 Task Force came as a beacon for Igarapé do Meio; it has greatly contributed to our COVID-19 response and helped us understand the dynamics of contact tracing, monitoring positive cases, and the emergence of new cases. It has only added value and brightened our work against COVID-19 in the municipality, especially through the scientific knowledge shared by ProEpi professionals and guests via the courses, Echo Sessions, and Epi Nights.”
Altemir de Jesus Everton
Epidemiologist & Biologist, Health Surveillance Coordinator, Igarapé do Meio (MA)
“I see mentoring as crucial, because there’s no point in generating data without outlining strategies and then implementing, monitoring, and evaluating actions.”
Raiane Mocelai
COVID-19 Response Coordinator, Palmas (TO)
DEPOIMENTOS
Confira alguns relatos de quem já participa das nossas ações.
“Participating in such an important project is an enriching experience, as it gives me the opportunity to develop various skills even as a student. I feel like I’m part of a true task force, with every pillar fully committed to execution and making everything work.”
Mirella dos Santos Jacinto Soares
Nursing Student & TiLS Scholarship Recipient
“I have closely followed the network’s efforts to fulfill its mission. Every day, we assist around 50 users with course completion. Being part of a multidisciplinary team has been extremely constructive, as it’s with this team that I’ve been advancing in my journey, both professionally and personally.”
Isla Novaes
Environmental Sciences Undergraduate & Mentoring Pillar Member
Testimonials from Brazilian municipalities that received customized mentoring sessions:
“The mentoring has been extremely helpful for spatial analyses, especially because the data never gets lost. Work that would have taken four years progressed more in one month of mentoring than in the entire period before.”
– Elisângela, Primary Care Nurse, Santo Antônio do Descoberto (GO)
“The mentoring sessions have been essential for improving local data organization. For us, the sessions on data management and geoprocessing have greatly enhanced the quality of the information presented to municipal leadership.”
– Ariel, Epidemiological Surveillance Technician, Unaí (MG)
“The mentoring has helped us in every aspect of surveillance. We used to struggle with data analysis, and now we can work with the information more effectively, the tools introduced have greatly accelerated our data retrieval.”
– Michely Lima, Epidemiological Surveillance Technician, Cruzeiro do Sul (AC)
“The support has been very productive, especially regarding data analysis, where we’ve been able to identify notification issues and improve our actions based on more coherent data. The vaccine-data analysis was crucial for identifying delayed cases and conducting active follow-up. Mentoring has also given us a broader perspective on surveillance, enabling us to refine information and implement key actions.”
– Altemir, Epidemiological Surveillance Coordinator, Igarapé do Meio (MA)
“After the mentoring and beginning to put it into practice, we’ve immediately gained time and agility in surveillance activities through improvements in our Excel spreadsheets. With Epi Info and QGIS, we plan to further enhance graph interpretation and territorial mapping,speeding data collection and facilitating all aspects of epidemiological surveillance in our municipality.”
– Flávio Brasil, Epidemiological Surveillance Technician, Boa Viagem (CE)
“ProEpi’s mentoring sessions have been extremely beneficial for our municipality. With their help, we organized our COVID-19 database, corrected system inconsistencies in case, death, and vaccine records, and now have a dataset that more accurately reflects reality, making our epidemiological surveillance analyses much easier.”
– Leidimar, Epidemiological Surveillance Coordinator, Valparaíso de Goiás (GO)
The Resource Center organized by ProEpi aggregates a range of guidance documents for health professionals and the public on COVID-19, such as guides, booklets, references, and risk-communication materials, produced both by our task force and other organizations.
ENTERAn interactive dashboard for monitoring COVID-19 in Brazil.
ENTERNEWSMore news
Stay up to date with the latest updates and activities of the TiLS COVID-19 Task Force.
