January 2025 HISP Highlights

Our global HISP network has closed out 2024 with some big new accomplishments and partnerships! Here are some of the most important announcements and updates from the last month.

Partnership

Climate and Health Workshop in Laos
HISP UiO representatives conducted a Climate Health Analytics Platform (CHAP) workshop in Laos for members of the Ministry of Health’s Epidemiology Unit. Users offered great feedback on the platform’s outputs, comparing two baseline models for dengue prediction based on temperature, precipitation, and historical case data. “I like this very much, that I can compare the last year’s data and the models side by side.” The ministry aims to incorporate a predictive output like this into its weekly surveillance bulletins that are already being generated from DHIS2. More

Supporting Master’s Students in Palestine
HISP MENA supported a 16-week course on health information systems at Al-Quds University in Palestine, spending time interacting with master’s students in public public and health policies. The course focused on contemporary trends in the construction, design and engineering of health information systems and the most important considerations for their integration with sustainable development goals and national health strategies. More

Harnessing Climate Data in Uganda
HISP Uganda hosted a meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Health to discuss how the DHIS2 can support climate data capture, analysis and use in the country. Attendees represented the ministry’s Division of Health Information, Malaria Control Program, Nutrition Department, Non Communicable Disease Department, and Environmental Health Department. More

HISP Uganda also participated in the ministry’s Malaria Annual Review and Workplan retreat in Mbale Eastern Region, working alongside the Division of Health Informatics to explore the DHIS2 Climate Data App and opportunities for Malaria-Climate Data analytics products. More

DHIS2 for Land Registry in Latin America
The HISP UiO Regional Coordinator for Latin America spent a week in Brasilia, Brazil, prototyping the use of DHIS2 as a land registry, together with partners from Norad, Norwegian IT consultants KNOWIT, and Brazilian IT company DATAPREV. The goal of this effort is to demonstrate that DHIS2 can be used as a land registry to measure things like deforestation, land use, and more.

Using Climate Data for Malaria Control in Tanzania
HISP Tanzania participated in a technical meeting organized by the African Leaders Malaria Alliance and the National Malaria Control Programme, focusing on integrating climate change and health data. Joined by stakeholders from the Tanzania Meteorological Agency, Ifakara Health Institute, and Shinda Malaria, participants worked collaboratively to build a common understanding of climate data needs and explore various types of climate data. They outlined the system requirements for effective integration of climate and health data, and aim to create a unified platform that combines malaria and climate data, enabling us to take actionable steps to address the impacts of climate change on health. More

Meeting with Central African Republic
HISP Rwanda made a presentation to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Service of the Central African Republic, highlighting HISP activities in the CAR, including efforts to digitize the health information system and build the national team to run and maintain the country’s information systems. HISP Rwanda’s work aims to digitize and monitor the performance indicators of the National Development Plan of the Central African Republic, and to provide the prime minister’s cabinet with a tool to track the plan’s progress and budget execution. More

Training

Health Card Workshop in Sierra Leone
HISP West and Central Africa WCA supported a January workshop about health cards in Sierra Leone, in coordination with the Directorate of Policy, Planning and Information in the Ministry of Health. Jerry Aziawa, the HISP WCA director of implementation, served as facilitator and presented information about the DHIS2 – Health Facility Profile package, which will be integrated to enrich the health map. More

Training for DHIS2 Integration in Ghana
HISP Ghana hosted a training in Accra, in collaboration with OpenFn, the Ghana Health Service, and the Births and Deaths Registry (BDR), to equip participants with skills for workflow automation and integration. Key outcomes include developing solutions to streamline the birth registration process for non-hospital births through automated data exchange between DHIS2 Tracker, the BDR, and the National Identification Authority systems. More

eIDSR Tool Training in South Sudan
HISP Tanzania collaborated with South Sudan’s Ministry of Health and Amref to deliver a five-day training of trainers program in Juba, South Sudan, in January. The course focused on the electronic infectious disease surveillance and response (eIDSR) tool, and ensuring that trainers are prepared to utilize the system. This collaborative effort is a significant step towards leveraging technology to enhance healthcare services in South Sudan. More