The system that is powered by iHRIS, a free and open source software for managing health workforce information was showed off at an event organized by Mobile Monday Kampala (MoMoKla) hosted by ThoughtWorks. At the event held last Monday, a panel of speakers showed healthcare strategies and insights. They described existing and emerging tools, policies and how they can be made more efficient for the existing infrastructure. The speakers included Sean Blaschke, Health Systems Strengthening specialist from UNICEF Uganda, Dr. Eddie Mukooyo an assistant commissioner from the Ministry of Health Uganda, Ismail Wandembere, Informatics Manager from Intrahealth among others. The panel demonstrated how tools like DHIS2, iHRIS and RapidPro, integrated through emerging health standards can provide the backbone for the entire country’s communication and strategic health information network. Uganda has been praised for containing deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS and epidemic outbreaks such as Ebola. This can be attributed robust electronic health information system that the Ugandan government through the ministry of Health has invested in. These systems facilitate rapid information flow between the general public, health workers on the ground and their supervisors as Dr. Eddie Mukooyo said; “By developing a strong information system at the household, community, facility, district and national levels, this will provide the foundation for real-time information sharing.” This comes at a time when Ebola outbreak has claimed thousands of lives in West Africa and therefore the critical need to establish a more robust communication and data collection system between health workers and their supervisors becomes more paramount. Formed in 2010, Mobile Monday Kampala (MoMoKla) is a community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events. The community shares ideas, best practices and trends from global markets. Image: Dr. Eddie via Twitter user @fionalorna
