Development and Enhancement of 'Tanod Kontra COVID' for COVID-19, Severe Acute Respiratory Infection, and Influenza-like Illness Surveillance

PURPOSE OF THE RFP

WHO requires the successful bidder, the Contractor, to carry out technical and operational assistance to support the development and enhancement of TKC for COVID-19 Surveillance and its expansion for Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) and Influenza-like Illness (ILI) Surveillance.

The overall role of the institutional partner is to design, develop, and deploy additional functionalities in TKC to ensure the system meets the needs of the DOH EB COVID-19 and SARI/ILI surveillance. Additionally, the system functionalities must be agile to ensure the sustainability of the platform to meet the evolving requirements of COVID-19 and SARI/ILI surveillance.  

BACKGROUND

Currently, multiple information systems contribute to COVID-19 surveillance and reporting, and there is a need to simplify the Information technology (IT) systems and increase system efficiencies. TanodKontraCOVID (TKC) is a Department of Health (DOH)-owned application for COVID-19 digital response that integrates multiple surveillance sources. It is a product of cross-collaboration between technology startups, the academic community, and international development organizations with a common objective to create designed systems to bridge local and national response. Following the successful pilot of TKC, including antigen rapid diagnostic test surveillance and contact tracing, TKC has been identified as a solution for challenges identified in current information management systems. 

The TKC system is composed of a set of connected applications such as chatbots, text messaging services, and a web-based console with integrations across other DOH systems. These modules were integrated and further developed as a result of the data governance coordination process by the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Disease sub-technical working group for digital response (IATF-ICT sTWG) from March 2020 - March 2021. The initial development of these applications was rooted in civic initiatives that were later donated for adoption by the government through a technology transfer process, supported by international development organizations. 

As part of the roadmap to the transition to a more sustainable COVID-19 surveillance, the DOH Epidemiology Bureau (EB) has begun implementing expanded functionalities in TKC. Additional development of functionalities is required to meet the current needs of the surveillance system, to ensure agility in the response, and to develop a system that can manage surveillance of multiple notifiable diseases. Specifically, this project aims to: 

• Improve data quality, including data completeness, accuracy, and timeliness; 
• Implement an information system that can rapidly adapt to changing surveillance needs; 
• Enable faster response of surveillance units through seamless data submission, sharing, and interoperability; 
• Create a unified system for COVID-19, Severe acute respiratory illness and influenza-like illnesses (SARI-ILI), and other notifiable infectious diseases; and
• Support surveillance units rapidly respond to infectious disease outbreak.

WORK TO BE PERFORMED

In coordination with the World Health Organization Philippine Country Office, the contractual partner/institution shall perform the following tasks/responsibilities in close collaboration with the respective offices within the DOH Epidemiology Bureau (DOH EB) and supporting the work of the Knowledge Management and Information Technology Service (KMITS):

Expand functionality of TKC application for nationwide use by all Epidemiology Surveillance Units (ESU) for COVID-19 surveillance; 
Expand functionality of TKC application for nationwide use by all COVID-19 laboratories.
Deployment of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology
Expand TKC functionality to include national SARI/ILI surveillance data
Develop and implement training modules and knowledge transfer activities related to the additional functionalities to be developed within TKC

CHARACTERISTICS OF PROVIDER 

Mandatory:

• Proven experience in the field of development and implementation of public health information systems.
• Previous work with WHO, other international organizations and/or major institutions in the field of  information system development and maintenance;
Desirable:

• Familiarity with Philippines national surveillance, public health interventions, and
clinical management of COVID-19 SARI-ILI and other notifiable infectious disease
• Familiarity with the Prevent Detect Isolate Treat and Reintegrate (PDITR) strategies for COVID-19

SUBMISSIONS 

Qualified and interested bidders should access the bidding document/s through In-Tend by clicking 'Express Interest' (Note: UNGM registration is required). The following timelines should be observed

• Deadline for document requests and submission of queries - 18 October 2022
• Deadline of proposal submission through In-Tend - 23 October 2022

Late submissions and proposals sent through email will not be accepted. Only successful candidates will be contacted.