Chapter 1: Introduction [Marieke Verschuuren (RIVM) & Hans van Oers (RIVM)]

• Definition, scope and role of population health monitoring
  
• Underlying concepts: the information pyramid, health information chain, policy cycle
  
• Illustration of how good monitoring can steer effective policy making by means of one or two elaborated case studies
  
• Aims of the book

• Requirements for health information systems (based in WHO guidelines and other relevant sources)
  
• The current situation in Europe (based on health system in transition (HiT reports and other relevant sources)
  
• Assessing and improving health information systems, the need for health information strategies
  
• Health information systems at different geographical levels (local, regional, national, international): their links and specific requirements
  

• Conceptual models for public health monitoring (Lalonde, Whitehead and Dahlgren, input-process-output, etc.)
  
• From a conceptual model to indicator selection; selection/quality criteria, what makes a good indicator?
  
• Indicator work at the international level and underlying concepts
  

• Different types of data sources useful for population health monitoring and their strengths and limitations
  
• Data linkage
  
• EHRs, big data, and other current developments

• From data to information, e.g. trend analyses, benchmarking, ranking, comparing population groups, comparing geographical areas, and their pros & cons and requirements
  
• From information to knowledge, e.g. linking information on determinants with information on health outcomes, linking information on health outcomes with information on the (cost)effectiveness of interventions, and their pros & cons and requirements
  
• Modeling, forecasting and foresight exercises: typology, strengths and limitations, requirements for quantitative (data, models) and qualitative approaches (stakeholder involvement, ...)

• Definition, link with information pyramid, role in policy cycle
  
• Quality criteria for health reporting (content, process, presentation and communication)
  
• The importance of stakeholder involvement, co-creation
  
• The digital revolution in health reporting

• The challenges and opportunities related to the interface between research and policy
  
• Different models for knowledge transfer
  
• Knowledge translation tools

• Overlap and differences between population health monitoring and other health assessments (e.g. health impact assessment, health systems assessment, health tech
  About the Author:

  Marieke Verschuuren, MD, PhD, worked as a practicing physician, particularly in health care for the institutionalized elderly, before she started working as a researcher in 2002. Since earning her PhD in Health Technology Assessment in 2006, Dr. Verschuuren has been working in health information and public health monitoring and reporting, both at the national and at the international level. The interface of policy and research (evidence-informed policy-making) is her special interest. She has collaborated in and led various projects, among which are the European Public Health and Information System (EUPHIX) project and European Core Health Indicators and Monitoring (ECHIM) project, both co-funded by the European Commission, and the nationaalkompas.nl and volksgezondheidenzorg.info projects, both web-based public health information systems commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Health. Furthermore, Dr. Verschuuren has extensively collaborated with WHO Regional Office for Europe.

  Dr. Verschuuren has served as editor-in-chief of the European health report 2015 and coordinator of the European Health Information Initiative (EHII), a multi-stakeholder WHO network aimed at improving the evidence base for policy making in Europe. Currently, she is a member of the EHII Steering Group and preparing health information system assessments missions to Bulgaria and Moldova as a WHO consultant. Furthermore, she is senior advisor to the Dutch Public Health Status and Forecast 2018 that aims to inform Dutch national health policy. Dr. Verschuuren also is the founder of the EUPHA section on Public Health Monitoring and Reporting.

  J.A.M. (Hans) van Oers, PhD, has been working at the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) since 1998. Since 2012, Prof. Dr. van Oers has served as RIVM's Chief Science Officer of System Assessment and Policy Support, and since 2004, he has been a professor in Public Health with Tranzo at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Previously, he was involved in the development of the World Health Organization's Global Health Observatory, an Internet-based information system to support public health policymakers worldwide. He also served as head of the department of Public Health Status and Forecasts, being responsible for the publication of the Dutch public health report every four years, a major building block for the development of the national health policy.

  Prof. Dr. van Oers is a member of the Dutch Health Council, is chairing the ZonMw-program committee on "healthy lifestyle and healthy environment," and is a member of the ZonMw-committee, "academic collaborative centers on public health." At the international level, he was a.o. project leader of the EU-funded project EUPHIX (European Public Health Information System) and co-chair of the WHO-EURO working group on health information strategy. He is strongly involved in the WHO/RIVM-funded European Health Information Initiative, a project to improve disclosure and dissemination of information, knowledge, and expertise on health monitoring and health reporting.