Program overview
The Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP), led by the National Institute of Health of Colombia, was created in 1992 with the support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States. It received TEPHINET accreditation in 2018, becoming the first Spanish-speaking country to do so, thus joining the major leagues of epidemic response teams in the world along with programs in the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, and Canada, which are also accredited.
The objectives of the program are to improve public health workers’ skills in responding to outbreaks and health emergencies, and to build capacity in collection, analysis, interpretation, communication and use of data from health surveillance systems for decision-making.
The program implements the three-level “pyramidal” training model for field epidemiology. Over the past 29 years, it has trained more than 3,000 people locally, nationally and internationally. A total of 2,446 people have undertaken the program’s basic (Frontline) and intermediate level training. The program’s advanced level training occurs over a period of two years and is the oldest component of the FETP. A total of 173 professionals from different regions of Colombia and the world have trained at the advanced level.
The FETP implemented an intermediate level in February 2021 through a nine-month pilot training. Ten trainees undertook this level through face-to-face and virtual training, which incorporated prevention and control strategies and measures to avoid transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at the national and territorial levels.
The Frontline (or basic) level was implemented in 2017 with the aim of strengthening competencies in epidemiological surveillance at the territorial level. In total, 42 Frontline cohorts have graduated 564 personnel in charge of carrying out public health surveillance in health secretaries of the district and departmental order, including professionals of the Military Forces of the country (National Army, Air Force and National Navy).