GHD|EMPHNET aimed at helping countries building their NITAGs capacities in term of evidence-based decision-making process through conducting a five-day vaccinology course.
The training focused on Evidence to recommendation (EtR) (recommendation making processes) which consisted of 7 modules through which participants were able to formulate a search strategy for finding data related to policy questions in specified domains, explain the purpose of a PICO question, describe the components of a PICO question, and use the PICO method to refine their questions based on their country context. Also, there were discussions around the common challenges faced by NITAGs related to finding and assessing quality of relevant evidence.
Other sessions related to NITAGs were also carried out including Immunisation Agenda 2030, briefings on the regional situation (general + COVID-19), Immunisation system building blocks, concepts on immunology, vaccine development and clinical trials, epidemiological concepts, history and rationale of vaccination schedules, life-course approach to immunization, critical role of the NITAG, vaccine prioritization, adverse events following immunization in addition to vaccines supply chain. There were also many case studies, group works, and discussions during these sessions.