Combining the 2012 WHO Verbal Autopsy Instrument and the InterVA-4 model into a hand-held VR tool

Professor Peter Byass

Umeå Centre forGlobal Health Research

WHO Collaborating Centrefor Verbal Autopsy

Bangkok, 18-19 April 2013

• Major streamlining of VA based on various previous instruments

• Includes complete mapping of ICD-10 to and from a newly defined set of VA-derivable causes of death

• Specification of complete set of standard VR data to be collected

• Around 250 VA indicators (and skip patterns), including durations for key symptoms

http://www.who.int/healthinfo/statistics/verbalautopsystandards/en/

Umeå Centre for Global Health Research WHO Collaborating Centre for Verbal Autopsy

Umeå Centre for Global Health Research WHO Collaborating Centre for Verbal Autopsy

• Long-established series of VA interpretation models, developed over a decade

• Currently at InterVA-4 version 4.01, which is fully compliant with the 2012 WHO Verbal Autopsy Instrument

• Uses Bayesian probabilistic methods for a totally consistent and comparable source of cause-of-death data

• Freely downloadable models available for many years from www.interva.net, up to now designed for computer-based use

• Now developed an Android hand-held version to help users through whole process of vital registration and verbal autopsy, including cause-of-death processing and data transmission

Umeå Centre for Global Health Research WHO Collaborating Centre for Verbal Autopsy

Umeå Centre for Global Health Research WHO Collaborating Centre for Verbal Autopsy

home screen vital registration verbal autopsy

Umeå Centre for Global Health Research WHO Collaborating Centre for Verbal Autopsy

Lancet 2012; 380:1643

• The UN at the highest levels has recognised the need for worldwide vital registration

• To catch up on VR in the unregistered areas of the world, the world needs:

1. A standard VA tool

2. Consistent, automated cause-of-death assignment methods

3. Portable, robust implementations for easy field use with easy language adaptation

4. Transparent analyses and interpretations

Let’s go and do it!