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Best practices in certifying the cause of death involves confirming the death, examining the body, determining the cause, and completing the Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD). This process ensures accurate mortality data that is crucial for public health monitoring and planning. For example, in partnership with the Unit for Strengthening Cause of Death Data at the Tata Memorial Hospital in India, we provide support both remotely and in-person, such as technical advice, guiding quality assessments of MCCD forms, and research design and implementation.

Verbal Autopsy (VA) is a technique for identifying the cause of death by conducting interviews with the deceased next of kin or caregivers. These interviews use a structured questionnaire to collect information about symptoms, medical history, and the events leading up to the death. The gathered data is then analysed to determine the probable cause of death. We help in the design, implementation and evaluation of VA-based mortality systems and analysis of VA data. For example, we are using VA data to understand the causes of death in a region with high rates of kidney disease in India. We take a comprehensive approach and harness our expertise in improving mortality data accuracy through VA systems.

Birth registration gives individuals a legal identity and rights to access benefits and legal protections afforded by the state, including access to education and medical care. Complete and timely birth registration provides data for a continuous picture of fertility trends and child mortality rates in a country, which are fundamental for monitoring and national planning across multiple sectors. We provide support in the development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions to strengthen the timeliness and completeness of birth registration, and analysis of birth registration data. For example, in Fiji we have recently conducted a national evaluation of the effectiveness of a financial incentive tied to on-time birth registration.

Our expertise in this space involves training individuals in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding and advocating for improved ICD coding practices. The team worked in collaboration on a study titled “Automated Mortality Coding for Improved Health Policy in the Philippines.” This study broadly demonstrates how an automated coding system can enhance the accuracy and timeliness of cause of death data, providing critical country experiences to help build the evidence base on the topic. This highlights our team’s expertise and commitment to advancing ICD coding practices globally.

Vital statistics constitute the collection of statistics on vital events in a lifetime of a person, as well as the relevant characteristics of the events themselves. Timely and complete vital statistics provide a continuous picture of fertility and mortality (cause-specific) trends in a country, which are fundamental for health planners and policy makers to track and monitor progress against health indicators. We provide support in the analysis, writing and dissemination of vital statistics reports and publications. For example, we provided technical support to Fiji for the analysis and report writing of the Fiji National Vital Statistics Report 2016-2021.