MoPH, WHO hold road safety data quality training

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) conducted technical training on enhancing the quality of road safety data with the participation of a delegation from the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva and the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, which visited Doha recently.

The Ministry said it is collaborating with entities in Qatar and WHO to enhance the quality of road safety data. The delegation’s visit came within the framework of strengthening cooperation between Qatar and WHO.

WHO delegation held several meetings with partners of the National Traffic Safety Committee and representatives of ministries of Interior, Transport, Education and Higher Education, Municipality; General Directorate of Traffic, Hamad Medical Corporation; Public Works Authority; Qatar University and Qatar Energy.

It carried out field visits to all entities tasked with collecting and auditing data on deaths in various institutions, namely Hamad Medical Corporation (the Ambulance Service Department, Forensic Medicine and Qatar Trauma Registry), and the General Directorate of Traffic in the Ministry of Interior.

The meetings aimed to conduct mapping of the procedural operations of road fatality data sources with various stakeholders in collaboration with the National Traffic Safety Committee and to lay the foundations for a long-term national plan to improve the reporting of road fatalities to enhance the quality of reporting including death registration, traffic and other data sources based on the findings of the mapping process and to ensure the appropriate connection of all road safety data from different stakeholder sources.

Moreover, the Ministry, in collaboration with WHO and partners, organised a workshop on enhancing the quality of road safety data, with the participation of representatives of the ministries of Interior, Transport, Education and Higher Education, Municipality; General Directorate of Traffic, Hamad Medical Corporation; Public Works Authority; Qatar University and Qatar Energy.

Dr Qasim Aish, member of WHO Global Fatality Statistics team, gave a lecture on the methods for mitigating road-related deaths (mapping, identifying areas for improvement, and linking data).

Dr Iman Ali and Doris Mafatt from the World Health Organization gave a presentation on the status of the cause-of-death registration system and the quality of cause-of-death data in Qatar.

A training session on reporting mechanisms and data sources from various sectors was carried out with the participation of representatives of all competent entities, which resulted in the development of a working map for Qatar in the field of collecting and auditing national road safety data.

At the end of the workshop, the general framework of a long-term plan for specific improvements to the existing civil registration systems, vital statistics and other data sources was developed.