Sharing data is critical to fighting infectious diseases and being prepared for future outbreaks. Combining data from different studies and locations increases sample sizes, so that subtle trends or sub-population effects can be identified with higher statistical certainty. This, in turn, supports improved health policies, and the development of control and containment measures.

Infectious diseases disproportionately impact low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). IDDO works with researchers based in LMICs to develop research agendas and collaborative studies that address the priorities of the communities affected by these diseases. This approach supports two-way capacity strengthening, equitable sharing of data and resources, and sustainable development of treatment and control programs that translate data into evidence that improves outcomes for patients worldwide.

IDDO is committed to ensuring that its infrastructure and systems boost the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and re-use of data in accordance with FAIR principles to facilitate the use of existing data to answer new research questions and maximise the production of new knowledge.

Data sharing

IDDO brings together clinical, laboratory and epidemiological data to answer scientific and operational questions so that researchers and clinicians can improve diagnosis and treatment of patients and help to ensure co-ordinated and effective responses to neglected, poverty-related diseases and emerging infections.

Sharing health data is important, but it is especially critical to address the challenges of the diseases we focus on. This is because the diverse geographic endemicity and a scarcity of commercial interest in developing treatments for these infections limits the collection of data.

IDDO collaborates with the research communities generating data to ensure that data sharing is focused on the data that can address priority research questions for each disease. IDDO is committed to equitable and responsible data sharing principles that ensure appropriate involvement and acknowledgement of those who generate the data. 

Contributing data
Credit: Michael Coghlan, Flickr

IDDO is currently accepting data on COVID-19, Ebola, malaria, visceral leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis/soil-transmitted helminthiases. Details of what type of data is accepted for each disease and instructions on how to contribute are available on the pages of each research theme.  

Accessing data
Accessing data

IDDO promotes data sharing and data re-use to generate new evidence that improves health and understanding of the diseases we focus on. Access to data held in IDDO’s data repositories can be requested by following a simple process. View the data held by each disease theme.
IDDO data sharing registrations
re3data.org logo

As a data sharing repository, IDDO is registered with several sites. 
Data sharing animation

Find out more about IDDO's innovative approach to data sharing by viewing our data sharing animation below.