The power of knowledge sharing: BID launches encyclopedia of lessons spanning five-year journey
Jul 11, 2018
Posted in News, Packaging, People, Policies & Practices, Practices
Growth and progress are rarely linear. They zig and zag, and at times, for every step forward, there are two steps back. Buoyed by platforms like the BID Learning Network (BLN) and User Advisory Groups, the BID Initiative has embraced adaptive management and iterative, flexible program design that, over the last five years, have translated into many proud wins, some setbacks, and in turn, many lessons learned. In the hopes of sharing these we’ve compiled a comprehensive encyclopedia that documents our learnings throughout every stage of BID’s journey, from the design and testing of data quality and use interventions, on through implementation.
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Lessons from the Americas: PAHO launches toolkit for the introduction of electronic immunization registries
Jul 2, 2018
Posted in News, Packaging, Policies & Practices, Products
Evidence suggests that electronic immunization registries (EIRs) are cost effective tools that help increase coverage, improve the timeliness of vaccination, provide reliable data for decision-making, and reduce revaccination by helping to verify and track previous immunizations. Developing an EIR, implementing it at the country level, and, above all, ensuring its sustainability are not easy, fast, or inexpensive processes. However, the experience generated by multiple EIR development projects, and the success of some of those programs, can be used as sources of best practices and provide lessons learned. Within this context, Electronic Immunization Registry: Practical Considerations for Planning, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation was developed and published by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 2017.
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BID joins colleagues from PATH’s Vietnam office to swap experiences about digital registries
Jun 26, 2018
Posted in People, Policies & Practices, Products
Remain committed to openness. Coordinate with other key initiatives and organizations. Contribute to the body of knowledge that informs future investment. These are just a few of BID’s founding principles, which were manifest last month during a stakeholder meeting in Laos. On May 3, members of PATH’s ImmReg team and the BID Initiative joined a meeting convened by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and National Immunization Program (NIP) of Laos. It brought together key partners working with the government to share, understand, and prioritize the needs of NIP and the MOH regarding the immunization information system. The ImmReg and BID teams shared their lessons learned, challenges and successes with implementing and scaling electronic immunization registries, so that stakeholders and members of government in Laos, who face similar data challenges, could learn from their experiences.
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Distilling immunization data quality and use evidence
Jun 8, 2018
Posted in General
Over 30 experts in immunization gathered last month in Washington D.C. for the Immunization Data: Evidence for Action (IDEA) project. IDEA’s mission is to systematically synthesize, frame, and share evidence-informed learning and data quality and use best practices that improve immunization outcomes. This workshop was critical in discussing and distilling the evidence and other promising practices into practical and usable learnings that will be shared with the larger community.
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BID Initiative digs into data at Teach to Reach workshop
May 23, 2018
Posted in Monitoring & Evaluation, Packaging, People, Policies & Practices, Practices
Earlier this month, PATH and the BID Initiative participated in the “Teach to Reach: Innovative Methods for Immunization Training” workshop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from May 1-3. This three-day hands-on forum provided participants with an opportunity to use a design-thinking approach to tackle issues related to workforce performance within immunization programs. Approximately 100 participants from Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, India, and other global partners attended the workshop. BID participated in a number of sessions, including a well-received demonstration of the Tanzania Immunization Registry (TImR) during the opening night of the workshop.
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JLN countries explore the effective use of data
May 15, 2018
Posted in People, Policies & Practices
The Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN), like the BID Learning Network (BLN), is a country-led effort to promote knowledge exchange among peers. Last month, the Information Technology initiative of the JLN convened to discuss a topic familiar to BID – the importance of data use for strong health information systems and improved health outcomes. The following post first appeared on the JLN blog. Having high-quality health care and health insurance data readily available, and knowing how to use it for planning and decision-making, are key goals for countries working toward Universal Health Coverage. From April 4-6, 2018, 30 practitioners from 10 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Americas gathered in Seoul, South Korea, for the second Data Foundations Collaborative workshop.
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BID joins other digital initiatives and stakeholders at the ICT4D conference in Lusaka
May 9, 2018
Posted in People, Policies & Practices, Practices, Products
The BID Initiative is headed to the ICT4D conference in Lusaka, Zambia this week for a chance to share and learn from others in the international development community. The conference convenes public, private and civil society organizations from across the international development community, including professionals with backgrounds in health, agriculture, finance, software development and data use and visualization, to name a few. This year, ICT4D is expected to attract more than 600 participants.
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Tanzania’s digital leadership drives partnerships with JSI, others
May 3, 2018
Posted in People, Policies & Practices, Practices, Products
To be truly successful, data quality and use interventions must be scalable and able to be implemented across different settings with different people and partners beyond the BID Initiative. We are pleased to see these partnerships already taking shape with, for instance, the Catholic Medical Mission Board in Zambia’s Western Province, where the country’s electronic immunization registery is now in use in nine health facilities. Most recently, BID has collaborated with John Snow, Inc.’s (JSI) inSupply project to rollout TImR in Dodoma Region.
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Celebrating progress and looking ahead this World Immunization Week
Apr 27, 2018
Posted in News, People, Policies & Practices, Products
During a recent visit, Regina Chilekwa, a nurse at Mahatma Gandhi Clinic in Livingstone, Zambia, sat with a patient and talked her through the vaccines her young son needed to keep him protected. Every year, at the end of April, the global health community celebrates World Immunization Week, a chance to spotlight the incredible potential of vaccines, progress toward closing the immunization gap, and advocate for the gains that still must be made. Closing the immunization gap requires all hands-on deck. And while coverage has improved greatly in the last few decades, it has recently stagnated. Twenty percent of children still face barriers to vaccination, ranging from a lack of access to services, to weak health information systems, long travel times between facilities, and vaccine stockouts.
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Promising technologies for closing the immunization gap
Apr 13, 2018
Posted in News
Later this month, the global health community will celebrate World Immunization Week, a chance to acknowledge our progress and spread awareness about the collective action needed to ensure that everyone is protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. Achieving full immunization coverage will require better insight into which children are missing out on lifesaving vaccines. Digital innovations are one possible solution. These technologies and big data can help identify patients that are the hardest to reach, predict the spread of disease, and hone vaccination campaigns.
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