Capacity Building and Mentorship Program
Improve data quality and transformation of health information in the three regions.
- To improve the quality of data and practicing the data quality assurance techniques at all levels.
- To improve the culture of using health data for decisions at the lower levels in the health system.
- To improve the capacity of health workers and health managers to use health information for evidence based decision making.
- To support the implementation of IR guideline.
NURTURE
NURTURE is a capacity-building project within the Sub-Programme of Education and Teacher Training of the Norway Government. The NURTURE project aims to contribute to better, relevant, more accessible, and more efficient higher education in Ethiopia. The project improves the capacity of three education programs (eHealth, informatics, and special needs) in five universities in Ethiopia including the University of Gondar.
WHO_DAKs Implementation Research
Countries are increasing investments in the digitization of legacy paper-based systems. WHO launched the SMART Guidelines initiative to support countries’ digitization journeys and facilitate a structured approach to embedding WHO recommendations and standards within digital systems. “Digital Adaptation Kit” (DAK) is one of the tools within the WHO SMART Guidelines initiative. DAKs provide an operational and software-neutral mechanism that distills WHO guidelines into a standardized format that can be more easily incorporated into digital systems.
DHA
Supported by USAID-funded Digital Health Activity (DHA), the University of Gondar works on the IR implementation and interoperability of digital health systems in Ethiopia with the vision of building a sustainable, resilient, and interoperable health information system (HIS) that ensures the entire health sector has the data, analytics, and skills necessary to improve the health and wellbeing of all Ethiopians.
The University of Gondar, partnering with the DHA of JSI and funding from SAID, provides technical HIS support at the point of health service delivery, i.e., PHCUs and health facilities, and supports the interoperability of HIS in the Federal Ministry of Health, Ethiopia.
Global Digital Health Exemplars
The Center for Global Digital Health Innovation (CGDHI) based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and eHealth Lab Ethiopia based at the University of Gondar is working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to understand which countries have been able to successfully leverage digital solutions to transform PHC service delivery – and the facilitators and challenges experienced in their paths. This work is part of the larger Exemplars in Global Health initiative. To support this work, we are engaging stakeholders from countries that can benefit from the findings and adapt them to their country contexts.
Interoperability Academy
In Ethiopia, several digital health initiatives have been implemented including District Health Information System Version2 (DHIS2), Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Systems, Electronic Community Based Health Insurance (eCBHI), Electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS), Logistic Management Information System (LMIS), Human Resource Information System (HRIS), and Master Facility Registries. However, these initiatives were characterized as fragmented, with identified duplicated efforts, inadequate ICT infrastructure or planning, insufficient enabling environments to support eHealth standards, and limited e-health coordination at multiple layers of the health sector. These result in disparate information stored in different locations and formats and make it seemingly impossible for data to be collated, synced, and shared.
EMR Development and Implementation
In the past many years, Ethiopia has made efforts to implement EMR systems at various public health facilities. However, the implementation efforts have been unsuccessful in all but a few health facilities. Training and follow-up, lack of management commitment, poor ICT infrastructure, and hardware and software-related issues were presumed to be the challenges that contributed to the EMR implementation failure. In addition, the absence of a national EMR implementation roadmap that guides the overall EMR implementation has contributed to the implementation failure of EMR systems.
DHI MEL
Immunization programs are crucial for reducing child morbidity and mortality but face challenges like zero-dose children, incomplete vaccinations, supply chain issues, workforce constraints, financial limitations, and vaccine hesitancy, exacerbated by COVID-19. Digital health interventions offer solutions to enhance immunization services. Gavi’s Digital Health Information (DHI) Strategy promotes an equitable, gender-intentional system to identify and support zero-dose and under-immunized children. Ethiopia developed a Costed DHI Roadmap in 2022 to prioritize digital interventions. This baseline report assesses the implementation status, enablers, barriers, gender inclusiveness, and impacts on immunization outcomes to track progress over the next 18 months
ThinkPlace
The ThinkPlace project, part of DUP’s Workstream 3, is a collaborative initiative involving multiple international and local organizations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ministry of Health, DUP, UoG-CBMP, and other key stakeholders. This project aims to enhance data quality and promote its effective use in decision-making at primary healthcare units and district levels. By focusing on transforming the culture of data use, it examines health facility expectations, values, and behaviors while working closely with selected health facilities and districts in the Amhara region. Running from November 2023 to June 2026, the project progresses through three phases: mid-fidelity prototyping (November 2023 – June 2024) to test desirability and efficacy, high-fidelity prototyping (July 2024 – June 2025) to refine feasibility and scalability, and piloting integrated interventions (July 2025 – June 2026) across three new regions to ensure contextual relevance and generate evidence.