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Aug 1, 2008

Introducing new vaccines in the poorest countries: What did we learn from the GAVI experience with financial sustainability?

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Global

This paper reviews the experience of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in introducing hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccines in the poorest countries, and explores how financing for immunization has changed since GAVI Fund resources were made available during its first wave of support between 2000 and 2006. The analysis of Financial Sustainability Plans in 50 countries allowed for some of the original funding assumptions of the GAVI approach to be tested against the realities in a wide set of countries, and to highlight implications for future immunization efforts. While the initial GAVI experience with financial sustainability has proved successful through the development of plans, and many countries have been able to both introduce new vaccines and mobilize additional financing for immunization, for future GAVI supported vaccine introduction, some country co-financing of these will be needed upfront for the approach to be more sustainable.

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Nov 8, 2009

Integrating Fingerprint Verification into the Smart Card-Based Healthcare Information System

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Global

As VLSI technology has been improved, a smart card employing 32-bit processors has been released, and more personal information such as medical, financial data can be stored in the card. Thus, it becomes important to protect personal information stored in the card. Verification of the card holder's identity using a fingerprint has advantages over the present practices of Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) and passwords. However, the computational workload of fingerprint verification is much heavier than that of the typical PIN-based solution. In this paper, we consider three strategies to implement fingerprint verification in a smart card environment and how to distribute the modules of fingerprint verification between the smart card and the card reader. We first evaluate the number of instructions of each step of a typical fingerprint verification algorithm, and estimate the execution time of several cryptographic algorithms to guarantee the security/privacy of the fingerprint data transmitted in the smart card with the client-server environment. Based on the evaluation results, we analyze each scenario with respect to the security level and the real-time execution requirements in order to implement fingerprint verification in the smart card with the client-server environment.

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Oct 30, 2009

Information Technology for Health in Developing Countries

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Global

Poverty has deepened the crisis in health-care delivery in developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, which is a region facing a disease burden that is unmatched in the world. Whether access to proven and powerful information and communication technologies (ICTs) can improve health indicators is an ongoing debate. However, this brief review shows that in the last decade there has been significant growth in Internet access in urban areas; health-care workers now use it for communication, access to relevant health-care information, and international collaboration. The central message learned during this period about the application of ICTs is that infrastructural and cultural contexts vary and require different models and approaches. Thus, to harness the full potential of ICTs to the benefit of health systems, health workers, and patients will demand an intricate mix of old and new technologies.

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Dec 1, 2002

Increasing immunization coverage at the health facility level

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Global

The aim of this guide is to help health workers to use their own data to identify problems and causes of low immunization coverage, and to plan solutions to increase immunization coverage. These guidelines can be modified to suit the local context and needs, and can be used at various levels of the health system in any country.

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Feb 1, 2008

Health Governance: Concepts, Experience, and Programming Options

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Global

Country health officials and donors have increasingly realized that resources allocated to health will not achieve their intended results without attention to governance. Particularly as global programs inject huge amounts of funding targeting specific diseases, weaknesses in health system governance threaten to undermine the effective utilization of the funds. Corruption is perhaps the most dramatic governance-related threat, but in addition poor accountability and transparency, weak incentives for responsiveness and performance, and limited engagement of citizens in health affairs contribute to low levels of system effectiveness as well.

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Aug 5, 2015

Mortality risks in children aged 5–14 years in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic empirical analysis


Global

Health priorities since the UN Millennium Declaration have focused strongly on children younger than 5 years. The health of older children (age 5–9 years) and younger adolescents (age 10–14 years) has been neglected until recently, especially in low-income and middle-income countries, and mortality measures for these age groups have often been derived from overly flexible models. We report global and regional empirical mortality estimates for children aged 5–14 years in low-income and middle-income countries, and compare them with ones from existing models.

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Oct 1, 2012

Regular Review of Program & Health Worker Performance: Using Data to Make a Difference

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Global

Immunization is a program whose success or failure in achieving public health impact is often judged on the basis of data generated on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis by health workers in facilities ranging from remote health posts to regional hospitals. Because immunization is a service that can be scheduled (unlike, for example, treatment of ill children) its data can be used by health workers to answer such key management questions as: Are we reaching the people in each locale who need immunization? Are we making progress? Who are we not reaching? Are children starting the immunization schedule but then dropping out? How well do outreach services work? In principle but not always in practice, the answers to these questions can be found by health workers themselves with data that are readily available to them. The importance of data use is highlighted by the inclusion of facility-level microplanning as a core component of the WHO/UNICEF Reaching Every District strategy, used by most countries to strengthen routine immunization (RI).

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Jan 1, 2007

Journal of Health Informatics in Developing Countries – A review on barriers to implementing health informatics in developing countries

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Global

Health information systems are spreading globally which promote health and human prosperity. Globalization of health informatics infrastructures is needed to have significant growth in improving quality and capacity of healthcare sector in developing countries. At present the health information infrastructure remains inadequate to meet the needs of rising population. Poverty and technological implementations are major barriers in the lesser-developed countries. Health care can be transformed and health status of population improved by eliminating barriers and implementing health informatics in developing countries.

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Jun 25, 2015

mHEALTH COMPENDIUM VOLUME 5

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Global

The mHealth Compendiums contain case studies submitted by programs implemented primarily in Africa. They document a range of mHealth applications and include a program description, available results, lessons learned and project contacts. The compendiums serve as a comprehensive resource for implementers and donors to access information on innovative programs as well as references to other mHealth resources and tools.

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Jun 19, 2015

Webinar: Building real-time LMIS for the vaccine supply chain in Nigeria

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Nigeria

The Better Immunization Data Learning Network (BLN) recently held a webinar entitled “Building real-time LMIS for the vaccine supply chain in Nigeria”. This webinar focused on building an LMIS for vaccine supply in Nigeria with an aim to acquiring a simple but impactful system. The speakers shared the stepwise approach they undertook and how they redesigned their system, adopting automation where it made sense. They discussed the challenges they faced, how they addressed them and the important lessons they have learned in the process of implementation.

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