{{The Minister of Health, Dr. Agnes Binagwaho has launched a two week Academy dubbed DHIS2.
The academy aims at strengthening national and regional capacity to successfully set up, design, and maintain the DHIS 2 Software; an open-source, web-enabled tool that will allow users to efficiently manage health information for better programming.}}
The high level training has attracted over 80 participants from 18 countries including; Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Namibia, Nigeria, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa and Rwanda. Others have come from as far the USA, Norway, Switzerland, Spain, Mexico and Guatemala.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, the Honorable Minister said that health information systems are the backbone of all health planning urging participants that the academy must serve as a platform for acquiring skills that will enable timely tracking of health progress.
“It is not right that people from far countries should come and help us to track our own progress on various indicators yet we can do this. We should be able to analyse health data and respond immediately according to need,” she said.
Dr. Binagwaho added that community health workers must also acquire health information skills because they play a key role in the system.
“In Rwanda, ICT is a major piece of our development so we must strive to improve health care delivery using ICT,” the Honorable Minister emphasised.
Rwanda has been selected by the University of Oslo to host this Academy because of the outstanding accomplishments of Rwanda’s HMIS team.
“Rwanda is one of our best practice countries because they have been so sophisticated in being able to implement all health programs and integrate the data,” Kristin Braa, Professor of Informatics at the University of Oslo echoed.
Caritas Spes Ndayishimiye, a participant from Burundi noted that the DHIS2 training will help ease e-sharing of data across their health sector and facilitate planning for the health of Burundians.
The two week program was organised by the University of Oslo, the Health Information System Program(HISP) Rwanda and the USAID integrated Health Systems Strengthening Project(IHSSP) managed by MSH.
According to officials, Rwanda has been an early adopter of the DHIS-2 platform having completed a successful national implementation of the Rwanda Health Management information System (R-HMIS) in each of the country’s over 500 health facilities in the past two years.
Data are pulled from various routine data collection systems into the national warehouse which is to become a “one stop shop” for key health sector indicator data.
Since the roll out of the initial system, many modules have been added and these include, death audit reporting for all maternal, Neonatal, and child deaths, Community Health Information System, eTB-a patient level system for tracking MDR(multi-drug resistant) TB patients as well as the HIV reporting and our Disease surveillance system which is currently being transitioned.
Participants will also engage with health workers, data managers and M & E staff at health centres and at district level who use the Rwanda Health Information Management System routinely.
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