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Aug 25, 2020

Determinants of facility-level use of electronic immunization registries in Tanzania and Zambia: An observational analysis

Global Health: Science and Practice

Subjects: People, Policies, Practices

As more countries transition from paper-based to electronic immunization registries (EIRs) to collect and track individual immunization data, guidance is needed for successful adoption and use of these systems. Little research is available on the determinants of EIR use soon after introduction. The BID Initiative published an observational study assessing the determinants of facility health care workers’ use of new EIRs in Tanzania and Zambia. The results highlight the importance of organizational and behavioral factors in explaining sustained EIR use. Read the full manuscript in Global Health: Science and Practice.

   

Jun 17, 2020

Assessing the incremental costs and savings of introducing electronic immunization registries and stock management systems: Evidence from the BID Initiative in Tanzania and Zambia

Pan African Medical Journal

Subjects: People, Practices, Tools
Countries: Tanzania, Zambia

Poor data quality and use negatively impact immunization programs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In addition, many LMICs have a shortage of health personnel, and staff available have demanding workloads across several health programs. In order to address these challenges, the BID Initiative introduced a comprehensive suite of interventions, including an electronic immunization registry aimed at improving the quality, reliability, and use of immunization data in Tanzania and Zambia. BID conducted a micro-costing study to estimate the economic costs of service delivery and logistics for the immunization programs with and without the BID interventions in a sample of health facilities and district program offices in each country. The full article can be found in the Pan African Medical Journal.

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Apr 10, 2020

Vietnam’s scale-up from a district-level pilot to a national-scale electronic immunization registry

PATH

Subjects: Applications, Policies, Practices, Products
Countries: Viet Nam

Vietnam’s immunization registry system prior to 2009 was a paper-based logbook that was prone to errors, time-consuming, and burdensome for health workers. Starting in 2009, the Vietnam National Expanded Program on Immunization (NEPI) and their partner PATH began visualizing the possibilities and benefits that a national-scale electronic immunization registry (EIR) and vaccine-stock-management system could bring to Vietnam. In 2017, the National Immunization Information System (NIIS)—a sustainably planned, government-run, nationwide EIR system—was officially launched along with national mandates on system use. Much of the success of the scale-up of the Vietnam EIR can be attributed to three key factors: (a) planning for scale from the beginning, (b) commitment from the government, and (c) technical partnerships. The story of scaling up, however, did not come without challenges and hurdles. This case study reviews Vietnam’s journey from district pilot to national-level EIR.

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Mar 31, 2020

Perceptions of factors influencing the introduction and adoption of electronic immunization registries in Tanzania and Zambia: a mixed methods study

Implementation Science Communications

Subjects: People, Practices
Countries: Tanzania, Zambia

As technology has become cheaper and more accessible, health programs are adopting digital health interventions (DHI) to improve the provision of and demand for health services. These interventions are complex and require strong coordination and support across different health system levels and government departments, and they need significant capacities in technology and information to be properly implemented. Electronic immunization registries (EIRs) are types of DHI used to capture, store, access, and share individual-level, longitudinal health information in digitized records. The BID Initiative worked in partnership with the governments of Tanzania and Zambia to introduce an EIR at the sub-national level in both countries within 5 years as part of a multi-component complex intervention package focusing on data use capacity-building. We aimed to gather and describe learnings from the BID experience by conducting a framework-based mixed methods study to describe perceptions of factors that influenced scale-up of the EIR. Read the full article in Implementation Science Communications.

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Feb 25, 2020

The catalytic potential of rapid, iterative software development

PATH

Subjects: Applications, eLMIS, Hardware, openMRS, Packaging, Practices, Products, Software, Standards, Tools
Countries: Zambia, Kenya, Pakistan

Pakistan, Zambia, and Kenya are among a growing number of countries implementing electronic immunization registries (EIRs) to improve data quality and health facility performance. But EIRs can be costly to design and introduce. This case study explores the localization and adaptation of OpenSRP’s immunization module, the benefits of iterating on open-source software, and lessons learned during use in Pakistan, Zambia, and Kenya.

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Nov 26, 2019

The costs of developing, deploying and maintaining electronic immunisation registries in Tanzania and Zambia

BMJ Global Health

Subjects: Hardware, Immunization Registry, Packaging, Policies, Practices, Products, Software
Countries: Tanzania, Zambia

Between 2013 and 2018, BID designed, developed, and introduced an electronic immunization registry in three regions in Tanzania and one province in Zambia. The Initiative’s financial records were used to account for the financial costs of designing and developing the EIRs, BID staff time, expenditures for rolling out the EIR systems and the related suite of interventions to health facilities, and recurrent costs. Total financial costs, cost per facility and cost per child were calculated in 2018 US$. By documenting the costs associated with introducing an EIR, BID hopes to help other countries introduce more affordable platforms for their own health landscapes. Read the full article in BMJ Global Health.

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Nov 11, 2019

The impact of an integrated electronic immunization registry and logistics management information system (EIR-eLMIS) on vaccine availability in three regions in Tanzania: A pre-post and time-series analysis

Vaccine

Subjects: Packaging, Policies, Practices

Since 2016, the Government of Tanzania has been implementing TImR, an integrated Electronic Immunization registry-logistics management information system (EIR-LMIS) that includes stock notifications. Working in close partnership with the Government of Tanzania, PATH conducted a study to estimate the impact of this intervention on vaccine availability. The findings of this study were published in Vaccine.

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Oct 3, 2019

Three waves of data use among health workers: The experience of the Better Immunization Data Initiative in Tanzania and Zambia

Global Health: Science and Practice

Subjects: People, Policies, Practices, Products
Countries: Tanzania, Zambia

The governments of Tanzania and Zambia identified key data-related challenges affecting immunization service delivery including identifying children due for vaccines, time-consuming data entry processes, and inadequate resources. To address these challenges, since 2014, the countries have partnered with PATH’s Better Immunization Data (BID) Initiative to design and deploy a suite of data quality and use interventions. Two key aspects of the interventions were an electronic immunization registry and tools and practices to strengthen a culture of data use. As both countries deployed the interventions, three distinct changes in data use emerged organically. This article provides a detailed summary of these three phases or waves, based mostly on qualitative data or observation: (1) strengthening data collection using new data collection tools and processes and increasing efficiency of health workers; (2) improving data quality regarding accuracy and completeness; and (3) increasing use of data to take action to strengthen their work and for programmatic decision making. These waves clearly demonstrated the growing ability of health workers to move from data collectors to data analyzers who began to focus on the data quality and then the value of using the data in their day-to-day activities. For the full article, visit Global Health: Science and Practice.

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Aug 8, 2019

Electronic immunization registries in Tanzania and Zambia: Shaping a minimum viable product for scaled solutions

Frontiers in Public Health

Subjects: eHealth, Immunization Registry, People, Policies, Products
Countries: Tanzania, Zambia

As part of the work the BID Initiative undertook starting in 2013 to improve countries’ collection, quality, and use of immunization data, PATH partnered with countries to identify the critical requirements for an electronic immunization registry (EIR). An EIR became the core intervention to address the data challenges that countries faced but also presented complexities during the development process to ensure that it met the core needs of the users. The work began with collecting common system requirements from 10 sub-Saharan African countries; these requirements represented the countries’ vision of an ideal system to track individual child vaccination schedules and elements of supply chain. Through iterative development processes in both Tanzania and Zambia, the common requirements were modified and adapted to better fit the country contexts and users’ needs, as well as to be developed with the technology available at the time. This process happened across four different software platforms. The BID Initiative recently published a paper to Frontiers in Public Health that outlines the process undertaken and analyzes similarities and differences across the iterations of the EIR in both countries, culminating in the development of a registry in Zambia that includes the most critical aspects required for initially deploying the registry and embodies what could be considered the minimum viable product for an EIR. Read the full article in Frontiers in Public Heath.

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