Health reporting as part of public health surveillance: the example of diabetes

The continuous collection and analysis of health data on relevant diseases (surveillance) is at the core of public health. The surveillance enables the implementation of measures to protect the populations' health. Therefore, relevant information needs to be provided in a timely and target-group-specific manner to the respective stakeholders. A dissemination strategy supports the effective communication of results and considers three key questions: (1) What content is relevant to the surveillance?, (2) Who requires which information? and (3) How are the results disseminated to the target audience? In this context, digitalisation allows for novel possibilities in the design of publication formats. Since 2015, diabetes surveillance has been established at the Robert Koch Institute. Within a structured process of consensus, we defined four fields of action relevant for health policy including 40 indicators. Thereafter, we developed the first publication formats in collaboration with the scientific advisory board of the project that reflected novel possibilities offered by digitalisation. In addition to articles in scientific journals, the essential formats of the first project phase comprise the report Diabetes in Germany and a website including interactive visualisations of results. Additional posts on Twitter and YouTube are used to increase coverage. In addition to the further development of the indicator set, the focus of the next project phase is the advancement of the dissemination towards user- and action-oriented reporting. In close exchange with the scientific advisory board, we aim to explore the requirements of the target audience and reflect them in the design of further publication formats.