Hospital-based birth defects surveillance: facilitator guide

Overview

The objective of this training course on hospital-based birth defects surveillance (BDS) is to provide participants with the foundational skills needed to begin, implement and progressively improve hospitalbased birth defects surveillance. Hospitals are expected to initially include externally visible and major birth defects in the surveillance plan. A set of such birth defects will be used as examples throughout this course. These defects are typically severe enough that they would probably be captured within the first few days after birth, have a significant public health impact and, for some of them, have the potential for primary prevention.