A user-friendly decision support tool to assist one-health risk assessors

Abstract

One-Health risk assessments are integral to developing efficient responses to disease threats, including global pandemics. However, short timeframes, inadequate disease-specific information and an insufficient skill-base make it hard for inexperienced assessors to distinguish between a large portfolio of approaches. The wrong choice can detract from the disease response. Here, we present an interactive decision support tool to help with this choice. A workshop with participants from diverse professional backgrounds provided six themes that should be considered when deciding on the best approach. Questions based on these themes were then developed to populate a decision tree which guides users to their most appropriate approach. One-Health risk assessment tools and literature were used as examples of the different approaches. The tool provides links to these examples and short descriptions of the approaches. Answers are easily changed, facilitating exploration though different approaches. The simple data structure of the tool means it is easy to update with more resources and approaches. It provides a valuable source of guidance and information for less experienced risk assessors.

Keywords: Decision tree; Online; Resources; User interface; Workshop; Zoonoses.

Fig. 1

The layout of the decision support tool. 1. A question segment 2. The answer panel to that question. 3. The node, or output of the tool. 4. Links to examples of where this approach has been put in to practice. 5. The purpose, scope and caveats section is accessible at any point. 6. A key, showing which coloured examples link to which sector.