TechChange

As the #GDHF2024 event comes to an end, during the afternoon session, I captured what was discussed on a plenary session titled: Enhancing Global Health Security: Kenya’s Experience Accelerating Digitally-Enabled Passive Surveillance and Response for Pandemic Preparedness. The session featured the following speakers Pascal M.,Peninah Munyua ,Xenophon Santas ,Jacob Odhiambo ,Emmanuel Okunga and Sonora Stampfly who shared insights on innovative approaches to strengthening health security through digital surveillance. Key takeaways: Kenya's Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) framework focuses on priority diseases identified through risk assessments, with reporting mechanisms that vary based on the disease's impact—ranging from immediate to weekly or monthly updates. Data collection occurs at multiple levels, including community, facility, sub-county/county, and national levels. The IDSR strategy is built on four pillars: epidemic preparedness and response, data management, strengthening laboratory capacity, and coordination initiatives. The previous surveillance systems have faced significant limitations such as siloed operations leading to data duplication, frequent system downtimes that hinder access to critical information, inconsistent data standards across various systems, and technological challenges in supporting outbreaks. Additionally there are also issues related to data ownership and unclear privacy policies have further complicated the effectiveness of these systems. Summary: To address these challenges, there is a pressing need for Kenya to actualize electronic public health surveillance. This would promote multi-channel e-surveillance, enhance data source integration, improve coordination among stakeholders, and facilitate better prediction and analytics for future health threats. #GlobalDigitalHealthForum #TechChange #DigitalHealth #MOHK #GDHF2024

And we are on once again for the #GDHF2024 Day 3! Today's sessions were on issues close to my heart where we asked ourselves,is the transformation to digital health equally serving women? Are we minding the gender divide gap?What are some gender sensitive approaches that we can employ in our innovations that can aid in closing this gap? The session further aimed to explore the intersection of the digital transformation of the health sector and the gender digital divide.Led by Naina Ahuja, MPH Laureen Wall ,Tessa Lennemann and Emily George Nicholson ,Stakeholders and implementers came together and Identified strategic shifts across the building blocks of creating an enabling environment necessary to close the gender digital divide. Recommendations were as follows: ✅Contextual Policies: Design policies that reflect local needs of women. ✅Workforce Collaboration: Co-design programs, consult multiple stakeholders, and advocate for inclusive solutions. ✅Profile-Oriented Services: Develop simplified, confidential digital tools for women with lower digital literacy. ✅Empowering Community Health Workers: Officially integrate and compensate CHVs whose majority is women, into the workforce. #gdhn2024 #digitalhealth |TechChange

Plenary session:𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬 The plenary session included : Joy Shumake-Guillemot, DrPH, Tariq Khokhar, Garrett Mehl, Ayub Manya, Gregory Kuzmak, and Heidi Good. 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 Climate Information Services (CIS) play a crucial role in health decision-making by providing data on disease transmission mechanisms, spatial and seasonal risks, and trends in climate-related health threats. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) collaborates with the WHO to enhance Earth observations, data processing, and predictive capabilities since 1952, aiming to reduce the health sector's environmental footprint. The Global Digital Health Certification Network supported by WHO, enables cross-border exchange of health information, collaboration on use cases like COVID-19 , and the development of interoperable technical specifications and standards.  Sustainable financing is also essential for enhancing climate resilience in the health sector, addressing the gap between funding provision and utilization. Collaborative investments in technology and updated policies are also crucial for effectively mitigating the impacts of climate change on health. Kenya has recently had extreme weather patterns which have affected nutrition and food security. For Disaster Risk Reduction the country has revamped the national health information systems ,established early warning systems and the development of disaster preparedness initiatives. #GlobalDigitalHealthForum #TechChange #GDHF2024 #Wellcome #RockfellerFoundation #PATH #DigitalSquare #WHO #GlobalYouthForum

KENYA'S JOURNEY IN DIGITAL HEALTH TRANSFORMATION. The Morning session was key setting the stage for the rest of the GDHF events taking place throughout the day and the following days. A panel session moderated by Rose Nzyoka hosted some of the key figures in Kenya's digital health transformation. In the discussion, Jeremiah Mumo, PhD, highlighted the role of stakeholder involvement in driving digital transformation by mapping out strategic partnerships. Steven Wanyee talked about how defining the little things is critical. Instead of reinventing the wheel, efforts focused on building and standardizing the existing systems eventually led to establishing KENYA EMR STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES. Kenya has achieved many milestones in digital health transformation each of which came with its challenges. One that stood out to me was the use of EMR for reporting. Patient-centred care is at the forefront of #DHIS2 through informed decisions and service delivery. Not to forget Political will have been key in the establishment of a policy and legal guideline to support digital health transformation through the Digital Health Act. What opportunities do you think are there in Kenya's Digital Health transformation? One key insight shared by the panellists was the need to professionalize digital health and invest in training. What do you think about this? What role can you play in Kenya's digital health transformation? TechChange #GDHF2024 #digitalhealth #ehealth #digitalsuperhighway #DigitalHealthAct #GDHN

Great sessions this morning at the #GDHF2024. An extremely interactive session moderated by UNICEF team Emily George Nicholson discussing different aspects of the #gender digital divide and how #digitalhealth solutions should be co-designed with women and engaging men to account for gender dynamics. This is in alignment with what we do at our Digital Health/e-Sahha Program at the AUB Global Health Institute with great support from International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and especially Chaitali Sinha (she/her) with whom we continuously explore approaches to address this gender divide. We have also discussed this topic specifically with Patty Mechael of health.enabled and reflected on the need to design and implement more gender sensitive digital health solutions particularly in #MENA with AUB Global Health Institute playing a leading role on that. Global Digital Health Network TechChange American University of Beirut

This morning I met up with Onyimbi Nelson, Cheboi Millicent, and Ralph Mutonyi— a few of the TechChange #GDHF2024 Social Media Ambassadors to hear about their experiences covering this event. Each Social Media Ambassador covered a specific topic track 🔀 and created thoughtful, insightful content 🤳about the sessions they attended and the people they met 🤝. Be sure to check out their posts and give them a follow!

#GDHF2024 It's day 3 and THE CLIMATE HEALTH CONVERSATION CONTINUES............... In the morning a session moderated by Dr. Mulenga M. Mukanu (Ph.D) dived into leveraging school networks for climate-responsive digital health which is a novel syndromic surveillance model in Zambia by Healthy Learners In the plenary session, Samuel Kalonde Mutuna, Emmanuel Serenje, and Maeghan Orton discussed how the model has enabled Healthy Learners to provide primary health care directly to school-going children. They have been able to do this by equipping the teachers and healthcare workers with clinical decision-support systems that run on their mobile devices. It's amazing how minor conditions are treated right there in school, and if they are major, they have partnered with primary healthcare facilities to conduct referrals. The major goal is to build strong relationships between the educator and children and improve their health-seeking behaviours. Something that caught my attention was how through this surveillance they were able to predict a cholera outbreak 6 weeks prior through surveillance of the symptoms. As the conversation went on Maeghan Orton shared about the challenges with the integration of climate data and health data. Most climate data is collected around airports and this poses a challenge to countries with single airports. Satelite data is not enough to inform certain regions climate data. How can this be solved? Also, this one had me intrigued, Most ministries don't share their data which beats the whole purpose of collaboration in enhancing digital health interventions that eventually benefit various communities. A call to researchers at the end of the session, there isn't yet a body of evidence that links climate and health data, perhaps an area to venture into? #GDHN #ClimateHealth #Digitalhealth #Healthylearners