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