O-01 Advancing public health innovations: Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA)’s novel caribbean-tailored early warning and response systems and tools for regional health security

Methods: CARPHA, the region’s sole public health (PH) agency and the designated health lead for CARICOM, is mandated to strengthen national public health systems and coordinate regional responses to PH threats. Through its technical divisions, these public health innovations were envisioned, pioneered, developed, and/or redesigned to address PH challenges and gaps that were made known in stakeholder consultations and other forums, particularly through 2022–2025. Data sources included programmatic documentation, surveillance system outputs, implementation reports, workshop proceedings, and operational experiences from CARPHA-led regional initiatives conducted in collaboration with Member States (MS), regional institutions, and international partners.

Results: Through CARPHA’s Pandemic Fund Grant, 13 CARPHA Caribbean-tailored PH innovations were developed across three domains: (i) surveillance and EW systems (EWS), (ii) laboratory Systems and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) innovations and (iii) response readiness. These included the Regional Integrated EWS System, DHIS2 platform, mass gatherings surveillance systems, vectorborne disease forecasting tools, information environment monitoring, EWSs for tourism settings, foodborne diseases and zoonoses/One Health, environmental health, climateintegrated disease EWS; laboratory expansion, framework for integrated AMR surveillance, collaboration for improved sample transportation; development of the Timeliness Metrics and TINGUA multisectoral outbreak simulaion exercise. These tools were endorsed by MS, partners, CARPHA’s Executive Board and CARICOM’s Council of Health Ministers. Following this mandate, CARPHA has started to implement with immediate success of identifying PH threats and responding early before escalation to large outbreaks.

Conclusion: The Caribbean context demonstrates that onesize-fits-all PH solutions are insufficient for small island contexts facing climate change, high mobility, and limited resources. Through CARPHA’s leadership, the region has developed and operationalized a suite of innovative, Caribbean-tailored EW and response systems that enhance preparedness, accelerate response, and strengthen regional and global health security.