Tag: Electronic Immunization Registry
Global knowledge sharing: New PATH IDEAL-Vietnam project collaborates with BID Initiative
Jul 31, 2019
Vaccinations have saved the lives of more children than any other medical intervention in the past 50 years, and an effective immunization approach is a critical factor in the eradication of disease. To be effective, however, doses must be administered at the appropriate intervals. Prior to 2012, all of Vietnam’s immunization records were paper-based. Time consuming, laborious, prone to errors, and a barrier to efficient vaccine stock management, this system was making it difficult to ensure children and pregnant women were getting the timely protection they needed to defend them from dangerous but preventable diseases.
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In Zambia, BID partners with UNICEF to reach more children with life-saving vaccines
May 9, 2019
Partnership is at the core of the BID Initiative’s success. In an effort to reach more children with life-saving vaccines, BID has partnered with UNICEF in Zambia to integrate two highly effective immunization platforms – the Zambia Electronic Immunization Registry (ZEIR) and mVacc, a UNICEF-supported mobile vaccination initiative that aims to increase awareness, improve access, and sustain use of immunization services through an SMS-based platform.
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From noise to knowledge: BID Initiative releases white paper about creating a culture of data use
Oct 26, 2017
What is a data use culture? Why is it important? And how can it be strengthened? These are some of the questions addressed in PATH’s newly released white paper on Defining and Building a Data Use Culture. Over the past decade, the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to improve health outcomes has multiplied in the global health sector. One of the primary benefits of ICTs is the improved ability to collect, analyze, and use data. But to do this well and sustainability requires fostering a data use culture.
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Completion of Tanga marks new milestone for the BID Initiative
Oct 19, 2017
Last month, the BID Initiative completed its second region in Tanzania. Expansion to Tanga provided an opportunity to apply and test the efficacy of data quality and data use interventions, such as defaulter tracing to pinpoint which children had missed a vaccine. As a region with more rural communities, Tanga presented certain logistical challenges with mostly farmers, fishermen and a few pastoralist populations. Interventions were introduced in all 321 health facilities in the region and more than 55,000 children have been entered into the Tanzania Immunization Registry (TImR) in Tanga.
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Becoming data detectives: Health care workers find new meaning in numbers
Oct 4, 2017
Salome Mbegela was sifting through immunization records when she first noticed a discrepancy – a slight uptick in the number of children who had recently missed vaccines. “Defaulters” as they’re often known, are not uncommon in Arusha, Tanzania, where Salome is a reproductive and child health (RCH) nurse. Mothers often encounter long wait times at clinics, vaccine stock-outs that require they come back another day, and a burdensome commute to the nearest health facility.
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Participants reflect on lessons and growth, as the BID Learning Network gathers one last time in Zambia
Sep 21, 2017
Sometimes the best solutions have a deceptively simple answer, or the solution already exists. Peer learning networks are an opportunity for professionals working across a range of workplaces, sectors and countries to swap experiences, share best practices, and adapt defined solutions to their own contexts, so as not to reinvent the wheel. For the past four years, The BID Learning Network (BLN) has been a platform for this sharing. As the BLN convenes its final discussion meeting in Lusaka, Zambia this week, we caught up with one BLN member, Mbye Njie, EPI Capacity Building and Surveillance Officer for The Gambia, to discuss what the BLN has meant to him, since it launched in 2013.
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Reaching the last mile – a Q&A with a nurse using automated, electronic reports to trace immunization defaulters
Sep 7, 2017
Oloipiri Dispensary is among the facilities that are using Tanzania’s Electronic Immunization Registry (TImR) to record and analyze immunization information. Located in Ngonorongoro district in Arusha, Tanzania, the district borders Kenya and is comprised of mostly pastoral communities. Because of its porous border and high rates of migration, many families struggle to make immunization clinics. Children are, therefore, more likely to default on their needed immunizations. Recently, we caught up with Nurse Iddi Ally Mwambuly of Oloipiri Dispensary to understand how better data and greater visibility into that data is helping to identify defaulting children and close Tanzania’s immunization gap.
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BID Initiative partners with I-TECH to track vaccinations with better data
Aug 22, 2017
The digital health landscape is rife with disconnected systems that make it challenging to aggregate information and improve the health of populations. After years of disjointed experiences, multiple organizations and governments have found that multi-platform, standardized, and connected information systems are critical to allow health care providers and decision makers access to timely and accurate information.
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Zambia’s First Lady praises progress as the BID Initiative celebrates improvements in data quality and use
Jul 27, 2017
On Friday, staff from the Zambia Ministry of Health (MOH) and the BID Initiative waited eagerly in a grand ballroom. Staff dressed in colour chitenge fabric outfits or smart suits waited for the arrival of Zambia’s First Lady, Mrs. Esther Lungu and Dr. Chilufya Chitalu, the Minister of Health. Mrs. Lungu is an advocate for maternal and child health, and her strong stance on immunization supports BID Initiative’s objectives.
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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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