BLN Focuses on Immunization Registry Development in Ghana
By Mali Kambandu, Communications Officer, BID Initiative
Jun 1, 2016
Posted in BID Learning Network (BLN), People, Products
Photo: PATH/Mali Kambandu. Professor Martin Were of Kenya opens the third BLN Design Collaborative Meeting with an introduction to OpenHIE.
This week, the BLN is in Accra, Ghana for the third Design Collaborative Meeting. At this meeting, participants will learn from their peers’ experiences in developing and operating national health information systems and registries. Professor Martin Were, an OpenHIE specialist from Kenya, opened the meeting with an introductory course on OpenHIE architecture, which many countries are looking to use to support large scale health information sharing.
On this first day of the meeting, the group discussion touched on many topics including: unique client identifiers; how to package interventions so they are easily adapted and implemented; mechanisms to encourage government investment in frameworks like OpenHIE; and, how to get started selecting and implementing an electronic health management information system.
Photo: PATH/Mali Kambandu. BLN members at the third BLN Design Collaborative learn how the Ghana Health Service uses an electronic system to track and report on immunisations during a field visit to Bawjiase Health Centre.
Today, participants visited Bawjiase Health Centre in the Central Region of Ghana. This health centre, located in a rural area about two hours from Accra, has a catchment population of 45,000. At the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) clinic, BLN participants saw health workers using the EPI eTracker to monitor immunisations given to children each month. The visit was an opportunity for BLN members to learn how the Ghana Health Service uses an electronic system to track and report on immunisations, with the view of using these experiences to see what can be adopted for implementation in their national health systems. Bawjiase Health Centre administers up to 100 immunisations a week, with an additional 100 through outreach visits.
Photo: PATH/Mali Kambandu. Mothers visit Bawjiase Health Centre in Ghana so their children can receive life-saving vaccines.
So far, it has been a very interesting week, filled with rich exchange between colleagues across the continent, all working to improve data quality and use in their respective health systems. Stay tuned as we share more updates and photos and join the ongoing conversation stemming from the meeting in our Google Group!