A strategy to improve death notification and community cause of death information in Lao PDR

Between February and March 2020, Dilip Hensman, Technical Officer for Health Information Systems from the World Health Organization in Lao PDR, completed a CRVS Fellowship funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative at the University of Melbourne to develop a strategy for improving death notification and implementing a pilot rollout of automated verbal autopsy in Lao PDR. This report outlines a proposed strategy for the Ministry of Health in Lao PDR to receive notifications of deaths occurring outside of health facilities, and to integrate the use of automated verbal autopsy to improve cause of death statistics for community deaths