The global digital health space is moving at a rapid pace, making exponential gains within the last few years. It’s hard to imagine that after only 10 years of development, DHIS 2 is being implemented in 87 countries and Indian states, with 53 operating at national scale. This kinetic global expansion of DHIS 2 has led to exciting collaborations and partnerships that are working to improve LMIC health systems.
And yet we know that there is still work to be done to improve these systems.
In our 4th DHIS 2 Symposium, we’ll look closely at how international partnerships between NGOs and governments are supporting national systems strengthening through technical support that ultimately improves the use of DHIS 2 and how this work is bringing us closer to harmonized data.
But beyond national systems, there is still exciting innovation happening all around us. We’ll spend time looking at Android mobile applications and hear from the UiO about efforts to overhaul and re-develop the applications. Biometrics are making concrete gains in development work and we’ll hear how they can be incorporated into DHIS 2.
Other topics to be explored include:
What work is being done around using DHIS 2 for the Sustainable Development Goals and how can we move that work forward?
How is data used in concrete ways to drive decision-making, course-correction and drive impact of your programs?
How is integration with other systems like LMIS and EMRs improving national systems?
David Randolph (Randy) Wilson has over 30 years of experience in the field of international public health, with a strong focus on the design and implementation of management information systems and M&E over the past 15 years. He has extensive experience as an information systems analyst, database designer/programmer, project manager, logistics advisor, trainer, program evaluator and health planner. Mr. Wilson has 19 years of long-term overseas work experience (9 years in Rwanda, 6 years in the Congo, and 4 years in Madagascar) and lived for 17 years in the Asian Sub-Continent. He has contributed chapters related to information systems and computerization in two WHO publications and has presented papers on geographic information systems, performance-based financing and HMIS assessment at international conferences.
He is currently the Team Lead for M&E, Knowledge Management, Research and Data Use for MSH’s Rwanda Health Systems Strengthening Project in Rwanda. In this role he has been supporting eHealth strategic planning; the design and implementation of data management tools for HMIS, disease surveillance, performance-based financing and community-based health insurance; and building capacity for data use at all levels of the health system. Before moving to Rwanda, he served for nearly 10 years as the Chief Information Officer for MSH, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he coordinated corporate systems development and information technology infrastructure support in addition to providing direct support to HMIS activities in field projects.
