Strengthening the Communicable Diseases Surveillance System in Lithuania – LT-Surveillance

Project title: Strengthening the Communicable Diseases Surveillance System in Lithuania – LT-Surveillance

Project funded by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)

Project start date: 01–01–2025

Project end date: 31–12–2028

Project budget: EUR 3,870,120.45

Key objective of the project: to strengthen the communicable diseases surveillance system in Lithuania.

Project Objectives:

• To improve and strengthen the national surveillance system by digitalizing missing data, ensuring high-quality data collection, transmission, and timely information exchange among interested parties.
• To enhance the competencies of public health professionals by providing them with specific knowledge on communicable disease management and surveillance.
• To digitalize information systems and ensure the exchange of missing data between healthcare and public health institutions.
• To develop a centralized system for informing the population about vaccination schedules, aiming to increase vaccination coverage.
• To strengthen integrated surveillance of acute respiratory infections, as recommended by the ECDC.
• To enhance capacity for outbreak management, tuberculosis case handling, and vaccination.
• To organize specialist training and develop a dedicated training platform.

The aforementioned objectives will be implemented by five partners with expert knowledge in public health, microbiology, epidemiology, and data science: the National Public Health Centre under the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania (project coordinator), the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania, the National Public Health Surveillance Laboratory, the State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania), and the State Enterprise Centre of Registers.

The project objectives are focused on strengthening the communicable diseases surveillance system in Lithuania.

1. Digitalization and Data Integration – to continue the digitalization of information systems, ensure the exchange of missing data between healthcare providers and public health institutions, and maximize the digital availability of epidemiologically important data.
2. Vaccination Information System – to develop a centralized system to inform the population about vaccination schedules in order to increase vaccination coverage.
3. Surveillance of Respiratory Infections – to strengthen integrated surveillance of acute respiratory infections (ARI) in line with recommendations of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
4. Human Resources Strengthening – to enhance capacities for communicable disease surveillance, including outbreak investigation, tuberculosis management, and vaccination processes.
5. Interinstitutional Cooperation – to ensure timely and high-quality data exchange among all relevant interested parties.

The role of the State Data Agency in this project is to develop, manage, and publish visual data solutions based on vaccination and other public health data, using advanced data analytics tools and digital infrastructure.

For more information on the project, please visit the NMSC website: Strengthening the Communicable Diseases Surveillance System in Lithuania – LT-Surveillance