How can mHealth tools help contain an outbreak? 3 November 2014

3 November 2014
How can mHealth tools help contain an outbreak?
The next MoMo, to be hosted by ThoughtWorks, will explore a healthcare system’s capacity to
deal with an emergency such as the outbreak in West Africa. "The recent Ebola outbreak
reminds us that supporting frontline health workers is vital …. There is a critical need to
establish a more robust communications and data collection system between health workers
and their supervisors as they address priority health needs." (mhero.org)
Our speakers will give us insights into how the healthcare ecosystem works; describe how
tools, such as DHIS2, iHRIS, and Rapid Pro, integrated through emerging health standards,
can provide the backbone for the entire country’s communication and strategic health
information network (https://rapidpro.io/, ohie.org). For example, tools such as RapidPro
are being developed to serve as the national communications engine, pulling in data from
healthworkforce registries and sending data back into national databases, such as DHIS2
which serves management information system tool that collates information gathered at the
district level in 49 countries.
The improved visibility afforded by these tools and adoption of emerging standards, will allow
integration of systems to provide enterprise level management of healthcare and better
preparedness for earlier detection of possible outbreaks by improved surveillance methods
and, in turn, enable a smarter, more rapid response by health officials to any perceived
threat.
Developer entrepreneurs who wish to create healthcare apps should be conversant with the
national eHealth strategy, along with the latest tools and emerging standards at an early
stage, to ensure that their product will be interoperable and align with existing healthcare
management tools. In doing so there will be a better chance that they may make a
meaningful contribution to enhancing the broader eHealth ecosystem, as well as building
capacity and resilience of healthcare systems including cross border outbreak surveillance and
containment that is a current urgent issue.
Speakers Panel:
Chair Sean Blaschke, Health Systems Strengthening Specialist, UNICEF Uganda
Dr Eddie Mukooyo, Assistant Commissioner, Resources, Ministry of Health
Introductory Remarks
Edward Ari Bichetero, Systems Administrator, Ministry of Health
DHIS2 and it's role in a Health Information System
Ismail Wadembere, Informatics Manager, Intrahealth
USAID Uganda Strengthening Human Resources for Health (SHRH)
Samuel Sekiwere, Software developer, UNICEF Uganda
RapidPro as Mobile Health Communications Engine
Nimrod Wandera, Software developer, ThoughtWorks Uganda
Building High Quality Health IT Systems: Method and Technology
Jeff Xiong, Developer-architect Global Health practice, ThoughtWorks
www.momokla.ug
3 November 2014
Programme:
5:30 - 6:00
6:00 – 6:10
Delegates arrive, informal networking
Introduction of Chair, speakers
6:10 – 6:20
Introductory remarks MOH
6:20 - 7:15
Speakers presentations
7:15 – 7:50
Q&A, Comments, discussions with speakers, delegates
7:50 – 8:00
Recognition of hosts, sponsors, announcements, future events
8:00 – 8:45
Informal networking
Presentation Descriptions with Brief Bios of Chair & Speakers
Chair Sean Blaschke, Health Systems Strengthening Specialist, UNICEF Uganda
Sean Blaschke is a Health Systems Strengthening Specialist, UNICEF
Uganda from the United States. Before his current assignment, Sean
spent much of the last ten years working with NGOs in West Africa,
fusing innovative communication approaches with economic
development, livelihoods, agro-forestry and nutrition. His work in the
mHealth field has been globally recognized, including projects in
Malawi winning USAID's ‘Top Mobile Technology Initiative’ of 2008
and in Rwanda identified by New Yorker Magazine as one of the “Top
10 Positive Africa Stories of 2011". Sean currently works for the
UNICEF Uganda ALIVE Team, providing technical support to the
development of Uganda's national eHealth policy and overseeing a
variety of health system strengthening initiatives.
Dr Eddie Mukooyo, Assistant Commissioner, Resources, MOH Introductory Remarks
Dr. Mukooyo is a medical doctor with an additional Masters in
Epidemiology and Bio-Statistics. He is an expert in Clinical
Services Management, Information Technology, and Health
Services Management and Policy. Dr. Mukooyo also has a
profound interest in improving the management of the public
health sector via development evaluation, good governance,
knowledge management, and accountability. He has
transformed the information culture in Uganda’s health sector
by developing the current Health Management Information
System.
www.momokla.ug
3 November 2014
Edward Ari Bichetero , Systems Administrator, Ministry of Health
Edward Ari Bichetero is a Ugandan software developer and allround "computer guy". After initially wanting to become an
astronaut, at the age of 12 he saw a documentary on computer
programming and was instantly and irretrievably hooked. This
obsession both fuelled and distracted from his studies which
culminated in a degree in Computer Science at the University of
Manchester. For 15 years has been developing, setting up and
administering database-backed software applications with both
traditional and web-based frontends. He is currently working at the
Uganda Ministry of Health (supported through UNICEF) as an
HMIS/Database Admin. His primary duties are the care and
wellbeing of the MoH DHIS2 instance. DHIS2 is a healthmanagement information system that the Ministry intends will form
a core pillar of an eHealth Information System. He is passably
fluent in at least 10 programming languages but, despite a general interest in language, only
speaks one human language.
Ismail Wadembere, Informatics Manager, Intrahealth
Ismail Wadembere, Informatics Manager, Intrahealth, is an
experienced implementer and capacity building expert in Geomatics
and health informatics with over 12 years in GIS and Management
Information System. He has worked in different management
positions and advised teams in the development of applications like
iHRIS Train, computer aided shortlisting used by all districts in
Uganda, got involved in several health local and international
initiatives by MoH, MoES, USAID, WHO, CDC Informatics, World
Bank, UNICEF, BTC, etc. He has spent the last five years addressing
human resources for health (HRH) informatics challenges in Uganda
including implementation of integrated Human Resource Information
System (iHRIS).
Samuel Sekiwere , Software developer, UNICEF Uganda
Samuel Sekiwere is a software developer born in Kampala, Uganda.
He received his BSc. in Computer Science (first class) from Makerere
University in 2009. He is currently pursuing a MSc in Computer
Science. In 2008, just before he finished his first degree, his
lecturer offered him a job at Digital Solutions Ltd. Samuel has since
been developing and debugging software systems (particularly SMS
and Mobile Telecommunications Systems). He is currently working
with UNICEF Uganda as Senior Health Systems Developer, focusing
mainly on mTrac (MoH’s disease, death and drug surveillance SMS
system), Mother Reminder and health systems integration. He
speaks Python and C with some eloquence, but will not have his tongue tied to express
himself in a couple of other programming languages. He is also such a strong Linux/Unix
enthusiast that seldom visits Windows.
www.momokla.ug
3 November 2014
Nimrod Wandera, Software developer, ThoughtWorks Uganda
Nimrod Wandera is a software developer at ThoughtWorks
Uganda, where he has worked on migrating web
applications into the cloud, with a focus on automating
infrastructure and application deployment. In other current
lives, he is a pseudo musician, with an interest in stringed
instruments. He is also a mathematical modelling
enthusiast who has previously worked as a statistician and
a social researcher on child trafficking.
Jeff Xiong, Developer-architect Global Health practice, ThoughtWorks
Jeff Xiong is a developer as well as an architect of the
ThoughtWorks Global Health practice. With over 15 years
experience in the IT industry, he designs and builds complex
large-scale IT systems. Jeff is also an active contributor to
the open source community. He is an avid reader and
believes that travelling is the other way to expand one’s
horizon.
www.momokla.ug