This page is part of the SMART DAK BDS (v1.0.0: Release) based on FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) R4. This is the current published version. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

Home

Official URL: http://smart.who.int/dak-bds/ImplementationGuide/smart.who.int.dak-bds				Version: 1.0.0
Active as of 2025-06-13				Computable Name: DakBds

Summary

Congenital anomalies, also known as birth defects, are structural or functional abnormalities, including metabolic disorders, that are present at birth. Surveillance of these conditions is critical so that countries can prioritize, plan and provide prevention, treatment and support services. WHO’s SMART guidelines initiative approach, which empowers countries to integrate recommended clinical and public health practices, and data recommendations into digital systems, has been applied to Birth Defects Surveillance (BDS) and its five-step pathway to advance the adoption of best clinical and data practices for Birth Defects Surveillance (BDS) is presented below.

L1 Narrative guidelines

To guide national birth defects surveillance programmes, WHO has created a toolkit of guidelines, recommendations, manuals, training materials and guidance. This toolkit informed the development of the digital adaptation kit for Birth Defects Surveillance (DAK for BDS). The WHO "Birth defects surveillance: A manual for programme managers" can be found here. The WHO "Birth defects surveillance: Quick reference handbook of selected congenital anomalies and infections" can be found here. And the WHO's "Birth defects surveillance training: Facilitator’s guide" can be found here.

L2 Operational guidelines

Digital adaptation kits are designed to facilitate the accurate reflection of WHO’s clinical, public health and data use guidelines within the digital systems countries are adopting. DAKs are operational, software-agnostic, standardized documentation that distil clinical, public health and data use guidance into a format that can be transparently incorporated into digital systems. DAKs serve as a prerequisite for developing computable, or machine-readable, guidelines, as well as executable reference software and advanced analytics for precision health.

The DAK for BDS and the associated implementation tools can be found here:

• Published DAK Document

• Implementation tools:

  • Link to the editable file of each business process in .bpmn format

  • Link to core data dictionary

  • Link to indicators table

  • Link to functional and non functional requirements

L3 Machine readable guidelines

The L3 FHIR Implementation Guide for the BDS SMART Guidelines is yet to be developed. Links will be published here as soon as they are available.

L4 Executable guidelines

Reference implementations representing the L4 layer for the BDS SMART Guidelines are not yet available. Links will be published here as soon as they're available.

L5 Dynamic guidelines

Content representing the L5 layer for the BDS SMART Guidelines are not yet available. Links will be published here as soon as they're available.

Contact Us

Please let us know about your experience in using the DAK and questions you may have by contacting us at SMART@who.int

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO License.

For more license details please see the license page.

Providing Feedback

Feedback specific to this specification can provided through:

• Clicking on one of the Feedbacks link to the right of any section header
• Sending an email to SMART@who.int
• Creating an issue on GitHub dak-bds repository