HISP Centre Joins Climate Sensitive Infectious Disease Network as a Technical Partner
A five-year memorandum of understanding will open DHIS2 training and climate-health modeling tools to a member-led research network spanning more than 40 countries, while connecting the DHIS2 community with researchers working on climate-sensitive diseases.
The HISP Centre at the University of Oslo (HISP UiO) has joined the Climate Sensitive Infectious Disease Network (CSIDNet), a global research network connecting climate and infectious disease researchers across more than 40 countries, as a technical partner under a memorandum of understanding that establishes a five-year framework for collaboration.
The agreement framework is intended to provide a foundation for sustained collaboration, allowing the partners to develop activities progressively based on emerging needs, lessons learned, and opportunities identified by their communities. For example, DHIS2 trainers, training content, and the Chap Modeling Platform will be made available to CSIDNet members through co-developed activities. In turn, CSIDNet’s network will be available to HISP UiO for feedback and peer learning.
“CSIDNet connects researchers working on climate and health in more than 40 countries, which offers an excellent opportunity for the DHIS2 community to connect with them and leverage their expertise,” said Prof. Kristin Braa, director of the HISP Centre. “Making Chap and our training materials available to their members is a natural extension of our commitment to open source tools, local capacity building, and co-developing technology with local experts.”
“Our members have been building forecasting models for climate-sensitive diseases for years, but too many of those models never reach the health systems they’re meant to serve,” said Dr. Angela Okune, Head of Strategy at CSIDNet. “DHIS2 is already the backbone of health data management in more than 100 countries. This partnership gives our researchers a direct path to that infrastructure, and gives HISP UiO a community that can test Chap against the realities of climate-health research on the ground.”
The agreement is intended to strengthen the connection between climate-health research and the national health information systems where that research can be put to use, and to support joint programming, co-branding, and shared training and technical resources between the two organizations.
Why this matters: Advancing operationalization of climate-health research
Research on climate-sensitive diseases often advances faster than the systems that would put it to use. Forecasting models developed by academic teams can be difficult to move into the routine information systems that ministries of health rely on, and tools built for research settings are not always equipped with the operational and ethical standards needed for deployment in a national health system.
This partnership addresses both ends of that gap. For CSIDNet, it connects members with sustainable, reusable open-source software practices and with a platform already in use for health data management in more than 100 countries. For HISP UiO, it offers direct access to a community of modelers and public health researchers whose expertise can inform the continued development of Chap and the DHIS2 climate tools.
As a result of this collaboration, HISP UiO and CSIDNet hope to see a progress in breaking down institutional and disciplinary silos and movement toward the shared goal of co-developing reusable solutions and tailored tools for different disease contexts. We expect this relationship will help to strengthen local and regional capacity and bring complementary expertise and global communities to work together toward a shared One Health vision.
Background
The collaboration grew out of HISP UiO’s Climate & Health work, and took shape through a workshop on spatiotemporal modeling of climate-sensitive diseases that the two organizations co-organized in Kigali earlier this year. CSIDNet is a member-led network that connects climate and infectious disease researchers, open source software developers and end-users worldwide.
The HISP Centre at the University of Oslo is the global steward of the DHIS2 platform, working with governments, non-governmental organizations, and the global HISP network to deliver sustainable, country-owned digital solutions for health data management and analysis. Chap, its climate and health modeling platform, brings community-contributed forecasting models, metrics, and visualizations into DHIS2 to support disease prediction and early warning.
For media inquiries, please contact comms@dhis2.org.
