(Description) Figure 2 Differences and connections between public health surveillance and research (Chiolero and Buckeridge, 2020). Both surveillance (on the left-hand side of this figure) and research (on the right-hand side) begin with the collection of raw data, which is not much use on its own: it needs to be transformed into useful information, such as public health indicators. This information may be analysed to give new (publishable) knowledge – in research, for example – or used to guide policy decisions. This latter activity is surveillance, and also equates (or perhaps should equate) to the ‘Wisdom’ level of the ‘DIKW pyramid’ (Rowley, 2007).

A flow chart to show the differences and connections between public health surveillance and research. It reads ‘Data’ with an arrow pointing from that to ‘Information’. Two arrows branch off from ‘Information’ with read ‘Decision and Action’ and ‘Knowledge’. ‘Knowledge’ also has an arrow going to ‘Decision and Action’. ‘Public health research’ surrounds the words ‘Data’, ‘Information’ and ‘Knowledge’. ‘Public health surveillance’ surrounds the words ‘Data’, ‘Information’ and ‘Decision and Action’.