FAO's Event Mobile Application (EMA-i+) is a smartphone/tablet app for real-time disease reporting by field agents. Data collected is stored in a secure, cloud-based platform called national EMPRES-i+, which can be accessed and visualized through a dashboard only by authorized veterinary services.

EMA-i+ is mainly used by official animal health officers of veterinary services at local, subnational and national levels. It has also been successfully used by private veterinarians, veterinary paraprofessionals, community animal health workers, wildlife officers, bee health officers and aquatic animal health officers in several countries. The final decision on users, their roles and how they are incorporated into EMA-i+ is made in consultation with the country and tailored to its national context.

No. EMA-i+ is only accessible once it has been officially set up in the country, and users must be added by the national system administrator.

Costs vary on context and include:

• Scoping mission to understand the country’s context and need for EMA-i+.
• FAO technical support for set up and customization.
• Training of trainers workshop (4-5 days, 20-30 participants).
• Users trainings (1-2 days; number depends on expected users).

EMA-i+ works online but allows users to fill out forms offline and upload them once internet access is restored. Dashboards and aggregated data require connectivity.

All data is stored in the secure, cloud-based national EMPRES-i-+ platform with access strictly controlled by the country’s veterinary services.

All epidemiological data collected belongs to the country’s veterinary services and/or Ministry of Agriculture/Livestock. FAO or other external organization cannot access, use or share this data without explicit permission from country's authorities.

The platform is hosted in cloud-based infrastructure managed by FAO and aligned with industry-leading standards for data protection. This includes physical security, data encryption, access control and monitoring, certifications and compliance, resilience and availability.

• National EMPRES-i+: stores country-specific data, managed and accessed only by national veterinary services, the Ministry of Agriculture/Livestock or their delegates have access to the epidemiological data in the national EMPRES-i+ platform.
• FAO global EMPRES-i+: public platform providing access to data and information on confirmed publicly available events (e.g., from World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS) and Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources Initiative (EIOS)).  Countries may choose to share data voluntarily, but this is never automatic.

The animal health authority in the country (generally the Ministry of Agriculture/Livestock) defines all users of the platform, their access levels, and roles. User permissions can be adjusted can be adjusted individually according to national preferences.

After a disease event is created and submitted in the EMA-i+ app, the report follows a pre-defined chain of communication to notify authorities, trigger follow-up and enable verification. The number of validation levels depends on the country’s workflow, and the platform is flexible to accommodate national realities.

Basic epidemiological analyses are automatically generated within the national EMPRES-i+ platform and can be visualized in dashboards or downloaded. Data can also be exported in Excel or CSV for further analysis and modelling. Predictive modeling is not currently available.

No, EMA-i+ is not currently open source. Discussions are ongoing about possible future options. 

 Work is ongoing to enable capture of antimicrobial use and other active surveillance data. This includes integration with slaughterhouse, community, and population-based surveillance data sources.

EMA-i+ enables secure, rapid disease reporting from the field to intermediate and central levels. This facilitates national –level reporting to global systems such as WAHIS. Data collected in EMA-i+ and stored in the national EMPRES-i+ platform are not publicly available or automatically shared with WAHIS. However, mechanisms are being explored to simplify reporting if countries choose to do so. 

 Yes, interoperability with DHIS2 is possible but depends on each country’s configuration and needs. 

A syndromic surveillance mechanism is under development. Tools such as AfyaData, Kobo collect and FAO Digital Service Portfolio (DSP) used in some countries for community-based reporting can be interoperable with EMA-i+.

The national EMPRES-i+ platform is structured to allow integration of multiple data streams. The choice of tools and data sources is determined in consultation with the country to ensure efficiency and long-term sustainability. By joining the EMA-i+ community, countries can also share their perspective on which data sources and tools should be prioritized for future development.