The official publication of the Asia eHealth Information Network
April - June 2015 Issue
UHC gaining momentum with ICT investments MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 16 JUNE 2015 The Asian Development Bank in collaboration with the World Health Organization and AeHIN, released a policy brief that sets the backdrop on how information and communications technology (ICT) is becoming an enabler to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Peer-to-peer assistance platforms and communities of practice, such as the Asia eHealth Information Network, is recognized as a vehicle to accelerate progress towards UHC with ICT. Following the ADB-AeHINWHO organized conference on Measuring and Achieving Universal Health Coverage
with ICT in Asia Pacific: Making a business case for strategic ICT Investments for quality health care for all, a series of priority action points, tagged as the iCTen Steps, was released and has been included in the brief. These steps serve as a guide for countries to use ICT to improve UHC. (Brief: see page 4)
AeHIN’s story shared at AIDF Asia Aid & Response Summit BANGKOK, THAILAND, 28 JUNE 2015 - The Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) shared its eHealth building capacities in the Asian region to the delegates of the AIDF Aid & Response Summit at the United Nations Conference Center. Dr. Boonchai Kijsanayotin, AeHIN Cochair, discussed how the network employs the AeHIN National eHealth Capacity Roadmap to encourage countries to acquire the right competencies in manning eHealth innovations. The summit, recognizing how technological innovations and best practices can improve aid and development work in Asia Pacific region, featured said presentation at the community health trends and innovations session.
Aid and International Development Forum (AIDF) Asia Summit 2015 website
“We believe that working together as peers we will succeed,” said Dr. Kijsanayotin after sharing AeHIN’s knowledge sharing mechanism and capacity building strategies. The summit was organized to feature three broad themes (1) mobile for development, (2) disaster risk and resilience and (3) aid and response operations. The themes gave the audience a broad overview on mobility’s impact on development and humanitarian work, lessons and innovations for disaster resilience, building successful
Dr. Boonchai discusses how the AeHIN National eHealth Capacity Roadmap is employed at the AIDF Summit 2015
public private people partnership (PPPs) and collaborations. It brought together wide range of senior representatives and advisors from regional governments, investors, UN
agencies, NGO, research institutes and the private sector. The plenary session consisted of more than 60 recognized speakers from 15 countries.
The Hexagon in AeHIN symbolizes “‘interoperability of systems” and when viewed in the context of the organization, it means “working together”. Though the hexagons are differently colored and sometimes overlapping, they still fit together. In AeHIN, like The Hexagons, there are many components to arrive at solutions in many eHealth problems in various countries in Asia. When AeHIN members work together, in every way, problems are solved and capacities are enriched.
1
National laboratories in Thailand meet to use LOINC BANGKOK, THAILAND, 16 JUNE 2015 - Thai Health Information Standards Development Center (THIS) together with Thai Comptroller General’s Department (CDG), organized a meeting on directions of the Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) for national laboratory test list in Thailand at Windsor Suites Hotel. The meeting introduced a national laboratory test list linked to the LOINC standard. LOINC’s potential for reimbursement scheme for Civil Service Medical Beneficiary Scheme (CSMBS) was discussed. Stakeholder shared their insights on the process of setting guidelines for the operation and maintenance of national laboratory information system, and a standard in exchanging data among hospitals and health agencies in Thailand. The meeting provided the participants an opportunity to share knowledge on the role of health information exchanges and health data standards in the country. Around 140 health personnel from 50 provinces in Thailand attended the meeting with participations ranging from doctors, medical technologist to IT personnel. LOINC is a clinical terminology for lab tests orders and clinical observations, has more than 70,000 codes for discrete measures and observations of many kinds. It facilitates the exchange and enables health care organizations to share standard clinical laboratory messages among payers, regulators, and other health care organizations.
Participants listen as experts introduce a national laboratory test list linked to the LOINC standard
Dr. Tiem Augsachon, Director of Thai Health Information Standards Development Center, presents at LOINC for Thai laboratory Test List in Reimbursement System
DHIS2 functionalities fit for Asia’s needs DA NANG, VIETNAM, 30 APRIL 30 2015 - Five AeHIN members from Lao PDR, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka received scholarships to join the DHIS 2 Academy Asia 2015 in Vietnam last April. They shared that DHIS2 functionalities they learned from the academy were good fit for their country scenarios. The DHIS2 tracker and Web API, two of the main features of the latest version of DHIS2, beguiled the scholars as this would allow them track patient specific data in health facilities; something they have not been able to do with the previous DHIS2 version. “The tracker module is a great help in collecting and reporting patient-based granular data,” said Anita Vannasouk, AeHIN scholar and Core Team of DHIS2 implementation in the Ministry of Health Lao PDR.
Tracking patient-specific information is important for case-based diagnosis. This will help in ensuring that aggregated data correspond to a patient’s individual record. Whenever a health worker at a rural health facility would want to dig down data from the aggregates, he or she can do this in a click of a mouse. Dr. Pamod Amarakoon, AeHIN scholar and vice president of the Health Informatics Society in Sri Lanka, said that the functionalities would also “increase efficiency of the traditional and paper-based data capturing and reporting system of health data.” All the scholars who underwent the intensive 14-day training program also had their hands on how to use country data available in DHIS2 to create local action plans. Combined with their existing routine health management information system,
they were also equipped on how to produce national health statistic yearbook. “Implementers around the world also gave fundamentals and necessities in implementing the system. It is truly a great experience,” shared Rene James Balandra, AeHIN Scholar and Software Developer at the National Telehealth Center in the University of the Philippines. “We are looking forward to expand our links and communications with DHIS2 international community, which in turn will benefit the DHIS2 local community and strengthen their efforts on implementations,” said Vannasouk. With the advanced training that scholars received on DHIS2, they said they are more than ready to share what they learn from academy to their respective implementing institutions.
Got eHealth news and updates from your country? Let’s share it to our network! Feel free to email us at secretariat@aehin.org. Always be in the know, too, by checeking AeHIN’s official website http://aehin.org and social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
2
Sri Lanka rolls remote hospital appointment system COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, 28 MAY 2015 - A hospital in Sri Lanka recently launched an out-patient doctor’s appointment system after the Ministry of Health forged ties with the country’s leading telecommunications provider. Initially funded by the Sri Lanka Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and supported by the Korean Foundation of International Health Care (KOFIH), Base Hospital Avissawella, embarked on another partnership with a telecommunications company, Mobitel, to install the mChanneling service. This service will allow out patients to reserve an appointment with the hospital doctors via an automated interactive voice response (IVR) system or calling system. The announcement was made on the anniversary celebration of Base Hospital Avissawella’s Hospital Health Information System (HHIS), coming into full operation with the hospital’s outpatient department. Currently, HHIS has a recorded 100,000 patient’s demographic and clinical records stored. Dr. Pradeep Keerthimallawa of the Avissawella Base Hospital’s E-Hospital Project team, said that plans are underway to connect laboratory analysis department to the network where mChanneling subscribes to. Along with project leaders Professors Won Joo Hwang and Hoon Kim form INJE University and KOFIH, it will be done once the ward module has been installed in the HHIS.
Visit of Professor Won Joo Hwang’s and professor Hoon Kim’s to ICTA. Dr Sumedha Panagoda (former medical supirintendent of Avissawella Base Hospital) and Mr Shriyananda Rathnayake (Programme manager ICTA), Dr Pradeep Keerthimallawa and Dr Supun Mendis(former MOIC PCU)
KOFIH and INJE University of South Korea Republics are among the project funders of HHIS with the Ministry of Health Srilanka and ICTA. Together, they shared
that they plan to upgrade the hospital into a conceptual model for an eHospital which government hospitals in Sri Lanka can later adopt, once it is completed.
MA4health Roadmap and 5-Point Call to Action engage global leaders WASHINGTON DC, USA, 28 JUNE 2015 – Global health leaders, development partners, and civil society representing various countries have gathered for the Measurement and Accountability for Results in Health (MA4Health), guided by the 5-point Call to Action and the Roadmap which provided progressive and meaningful discussions. The Asia eHealth Information Network was adequately represented. The MA4Health was organized by the World Bank, World Health Organization, and USAID and brought together more than 200 state and non-state actors from around the world to discuss how the Post-2015 Development Agenda will impact on national health information systems. It has been raised that more than twothirds of the world’s population is living in countries without reliable statistics. There is a lack of reliable data on mortality by age, sex, and cause of death. The importance of measurements and accountability systems were highlighted to explain the importance of good data systems containing reliable information in delivering quality healthcare. Importance of telehealth, mobile, and virtual health were also covered. Website: aehin.org Email: secretariat@aehin.org Facebook: aehin Twitter: @we_are_aehin Youtube: aehin2011
Dr. Abul Kalam Azad describes Baghladesh’ journey to better health through eHealth at the Measurement a and Accountability for Results in Health Conference.
Panelists were high-level global leaders, country representatives, and development partners. They discussed issues related to building country capacity and demand for health data, including topics like data revolution and the importance of country and global accountability. Among the panelists was Management Information System (MIS) Director and AeHIN member Dr. Abul Kalam Azad. Other AeHIN members who
participated in the event were Dr. Alvin Marcelo (chair, AeHIN), Dr. Rattanavong Founkham from Laos, Dr. Oscar Primadi from Indonesia, and Mr. Nekruz Navruzbekovich Jamshedov from Tajikistan. Participants committed themselves to contribute to leverage academia in achieving universal health coverage through forwarding digital health. 3
NO. 36 JUNE 2015
KEY POINTS • Obtaining universal health coverage (UHC) has been widely embraced in Asia and the Pacific. UHC is essential to inclusive growth, health security, and sustainable economic development. To achieve UHC, more resources have to be mobilized for the health sector, and they must be used more efficiently and effectively. • Information and communication technology (ICT) innovations in health—or eHealth— are key enablers for achieving and measuring UHC. ICT solutions empower patients and communities to engage at all levels of the health system, and can be transformative through each stage of every country’s health sector development. • ICT solutions have the potential to reduce healthcare costs to families, improve equitable access to quality services, efficiently link health systems with social protection programs, and increase accountability and sustainability in health service delivery. • Optimizing existing ICT infrastructure and making strategic new investments in eHealth solutions may accelerate UHC in terms of which people, what services and how much of the costs are to be covered. • There are significant opportunities, particularly in low resource environments, for timely and innovative use of ICT, but solutions must be harnessed strategically to deliver cheaper and faster UHC in the right context at the right time. • Applying lessons learned from experienced peers in the eHealth community of practice will help to rapidly implement solutions that work. The Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) is proving to be a dynamic peerto-peer assistance platform to successfully progress towards UHC with ICT. • Measuring UHC with ICT-enabled monitoring systems can also enhance evidence based health policies and decision making with more reliable and sufficient data in formats and frequencies that ensure better health systems performance.
ISBN 978-92-9254-947-3 (Print) ISBN 978-92-9254-948-0 (e-ISBN) ISSN 2071-7202 (Print) ISSN 2218-2675 (e-ISSN) Publication Stock No. ABF157288-2
ADB BRIEFS UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE BY DESIGN ICT-enabled solutions are the future of equitable, quality health care and resilient health systems1 Susann Roth2
Senior Social Development Specialist Regional and Sustainable Development Department Asian Development Bank
Mark Landry
Coordinator for Health Intelligence and Innovation Division of Health Systems WHO WPRO
Jane Parry
Senior Public Health and Development Writer
Target Audiences • • • • • • • •
Parliamentarians and executive branch decision makers Ministry of Finance and other relevant line-Ministry decision makers Health sector policy makers Ministry of Health department directors Health systems managers Health systems ICT implementers Health care researchers International development organizations
1
This policy brief is a collaboration between the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Health Organization (WHO).
2
Susann Roth supports the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) health sector development and co-led the preparation of ADB’s revised operational plan for health, which supports developing member countries in achieving universal health coverage (UHC). Susann is particularly interested in the public–private dialogue to provide quality health services for the poor and in information and communication technology solutions for UHC and health systems strengthening. Mark Landry is the coordinator for health intelligence and innovation in the Division of Health Systems in the WHO WPRO in Manila, Philippines. Mark provides health information systems and eHealth technical assistance to countries and promotes collaborative communities to strengthen health systems performance with better quality and timely evidence for decision making. Jane Parry is a senior public health and development writer. Based in Hong Kong, China for more than two decades, she writes for international organizations including ADB, WHO, and UNAIDS, as well as international NGOs and publications such as the BMJ and The Guardian. The authors wish to thank Vivian Lin, director, Division of Health Systems, WHO WPRO; Alvin Marcelo, co-chair, Asia eHealth Information Network, University of the Philippines Manila; Derek Ritz, eHealth architect, ecGroup; and Phyllida Travis, director, Department of Health Systems Development, WHO SEARO for their invaluable feedback and comments.
4