We chat with Wellington Maruma, an Epidemiologist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa, who has been seconded to the North West provincial Department of Health to strengthen surveillance and outbreak response.

He holds a Bachelor of Public Health from Monash University, Australia, and a Master of Science in Epidemiology, Specialising in Implementation Science from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where he was part of the first cohort established under WHO’s efforts to increase implementation research capacity in Africa. He is currently a doctoral researcher in Epidemiology at Utrecht University Medical Centre, the Netherlands, where his research focuses on integrated approaches to managing hypertension among people living with HIV.

He regularly facilitates workshops on R/RStudio, public health bulletin writing, and applied data analysis, equipping epidemiologists with practical skills to transform surveillance data into policy-relevant outputs.

His facilitation of the R session at the Writing for Public Health Bulletin retreat reflects the intersection of implementation science and epidemiology, ensuring that technical methods are not only robust but also directly applicable to strengthening health systems and accelerating the use of evidence for decision-making in Africa.

What value do you see in providing hands-on R support to participants, particularly in enabling them to produce publication-ready tables and figures during the retreat itself?

The most significant value of providing hands-on R support lies in bridging the gap between abstract training and immediate practical application. By working directly in R/RStudio, participants are able to see their raw data transformed into polished, publication-ready outputs within the same session.

This approach demystifies the technical process, builds confidence in their own analytical capacity, and reinforces reproducible workflows. Importantly, it allows participants to leave the retreat not only with new knowledge, but also with tangible products, such as tables and figures, that they can adapt and integrate into their provincial or national bulletins. For many participants, this was their first exposure to automated, reproducible reporting, and the ability to see results materialise in real-time was both motivating and empowering.

How will this session empower participants to meet PHBSA standards?

The Public Health Bulletin South Africa (PHBSA) upholds high standards for accuracy, clarity, and timeliness in reporting. This R session advances those standards by giving participants tools to automate outputs that meet professional and scientific communication requirements. Rather than relying on manual processes, participants learned to produce standardised tables and figures consistent with PHBSA templates, ensuring uniformity across publications and faster delivery from data to report.

Such efficiency is vital in outbreak settings, where timely, well-structured information drives evidence-based decisions and public health action. Ultimately, the session enhances participants’ capacity to produce outputs that are both scientifically sound and immediately actionable.

Based on your personal experience, what makes sessions like this one important?

As an epidemiologist working at the interface of data, analysis, and policy, I have seen firsthand how empowering colleagues with practical R skills transforms their ability to communicate evidence with impact. For me, facilitating this session was not just about teaching code, but about enabling participants to take ownership of their data, and see themselves as contributors to the national evidence base.

This work also builds on my experience as a Global Outbreak Alert And Response Network (GOARN) Fellow at the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, where strengthening epidemic intelligence and reproducible workflows are central to bridging surveillance data with rapid response.

In addition, my academic collaborations with the Robert Koch Institute, Germany, and the Utrecht Medical Centre, in the Netherlands have reinforced the importance of investing in analytical capacity that meets both local and global standards. Bringing these international lessons into the South African context through the Data to Policy initiative reflects the broader vision of ensuring that high-quality, timely data informs public health bulletins, policy briefs, and ultimately, life-saving action.