Category: Policies & Practices
Zambia celebrates its progress and commitment to better data
Jul 21, 2017
Today, the BID Initiative is celebrating its partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Zambia, and the formal release of the Zambian electronic immunization registry (ZEIR). In a showcase event Zambia’s First Lady Esther Lungu, and the Permanent Secretary of the MOH, Dr. Jabbin Mulwanda, among other special guests will jointly celebrate progress toward fostering a culture of data use among healthcare workers (HCWs) to improve immunization coverage throughout the country.
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Hello Tanga!
Jul 6, 2017
In October, we announced our plans to expand the BID Initiative in Tanzania and are pleased to share we will be expanding to the Tanga Region, followed shortly afterward by Kilimanjaro. This is a huge milestone for the BID Initiative’s work with the government of Tanzania. It means we successfully completed the implementation of data use and data quality interventions in the initial test region, the Arusha Region, and it signals another step toward scaling throughout the country.
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Leading from behind: Celebrating the completion of Arusha and the start of a new chapter in Tanzania
Jun 19, 2017
There are 285 facilities actively using interventions aiming to improve data quality and use; 81,735 children registered in Tanzania’s electronic immunization registry (EIR); 672 frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) trained on these interventions; and 48 district immunization mentors (DIMs) appointed, trained, and deployed to support HCWs in the health facilities that provide immunization services. This January, the BID Initiative completed rollout in the first demonstration region of Arusha.
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Tanzania realizes vision for an integrated immunization system
May 25, 2017
A successful immunization program requires the uninterrupted availability of quality vaccines from the point at which a vaccine is manufactured to the moment a nurse administers it. But in order for manufacturers and health workers to walk in lock-step, they need end-to-end visibility into supply chains, to improve forecasting and procurement plans at a national level. The ability to link vaccine supply data to facility-level utilization and performance data ensures more cost-effective, efficient and reliable vaccine management.
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PATH’s 40th and the future of digital health
May 18, 2017
Imagine walking for several kilometers to vaccinate your baby, leaving at dawn and following the dusty road between your village and the nearest health facility 40 kilometers away. When you arrive, there is no one staffing the welcome desk. The clinic is short-staffed and the queue in the waiting room requires at least an hour wait. When it is finally your turn, the vaccine your baby needs is out of stock. You’ll have to come back another day, but by that point you’re outside the recommended window for vaccination, and your baby is at higher risk for infection.
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Data use champions help unlock success
May 11, 2017
One of the BID Initiative’s core values is to “learn fast, fail fast, share fast” and since BID partnered with the Zambia Ministry of Health in 2014, there have been many learnings along the way.
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Year in review: BID Initiative, April 2016-March 2017 Annual Report
May 4, 2017
As we head into our fifth and final year of the BID Initiative, we want to share our progress with you and look ahead to the many milestones we still have left to celebrate. We’re pleased to share our 2016-17 Annual Report.
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Ensuring vaccines reach the people who need them most
Apr 28, 2017
Stacks of immunization registry ledgers tower above the desks and medical supplies. Each ledger contains rows and rows of patient records—their name, date of birth, the last time they received a vaccine, and which antigen, among other information.
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Closing the immunization gap with care, empathy and compassion
Apr 26, 2017
Prosperinne Walumba has seen many things in her 30 years as a nurse. But despite all the transformations over the years, her personal code remains constant: her commitment to care, empathy, and compassion, something the BID Initiative is helping her spread by easing workloads and enabling health workers to deliver more personalized care.
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Vietnam’s Digital Immunization Registry: Important lessons and parallels to BID Initiative
Apr 20, 2017
It used to take Ms. Linh more than a day to generate a list of immunization patients at the Phu Hung Commune Health center in southern Vietnam. Ms. Linh was responsible for manually entering each name and record into paper registers before personally delivering invitation letters for the upcoming clinic. These days, it takes a fraction of that time – just 15 minutes on the computer.
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