GeoPrism Registry

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GeoPrism Registry

GeoPrism Registry is an open-source Common Geo-Registry (CGR) implementation that utilizes spatial knowledge graphs to provide a single source of truth for managing geographic data over time across multiple organizations and information systems. It is used to host, manage, regularly update and share lists, associated hierarchies, and geospatial data through time for geographic objects core to spatial data infrastructure, sustainable development, and public health (e.g., administrative divisions, settlements, health facilities, schools, and other relevant physical and non-physical geographic features).

Information systems used to make decisions often have different pictures of the geographies (i.e., people, places, and infrastructures) they respectively cover. Within a single area, different programs collect and store different geographic data in siloed systems at different times, leading to discrepancies and duplication of effort. This also results in decisions based on incomplete and out-of-date geographic data (e.g., spatial distribution of population and resources), ineffective resource allocation, and in the worst cases, affected populations being missed completely during times of crisis. For example, DHIS2 is limited to a single hierarchy that is configured primarily for reporting purposes. It is not necessarily the same hierarchy that is best suited for a health worker, client, or facility registry. Additionally, the same identifiers are not being used for the common locations referenced across these systems. In order to perform trend analysis, data from multiple health information systems need to be properly contextualized across space and time.

Approach

Just as a terminology service can standardize vocabularies for interoperability across a health information ecosystem, GeoPrism Registry standardizes location identity, classification, geometries, and how locations are used in multiple and interrelated hierarchies. Health information systems do not need to conform to the hierarchy structure of a single system, such as an instance of DHIS2. Rather, GeoPrism can track different hierarchies used by multiple systems and how they relate to each other. For example, a facility registry can have different levels in its hierarchy than an instance of DHIS2, and yet GeoPrism can facilitate synchronization of health facilities between the two systems for the correct operational and administrative boundaries. This compliments the capabilities of the Global Open Facility Registry (GOFR) Facility Match tool developed by IntraHealth, which focuses on reconciling facility lists maintained by multiple sources but does not model the time component. GeoPrism is interoperable with FHIR/mCSD and DHIS2.

Implementations

GeoPrism’s ontology, GIS, hierarchy management, metadata-driven data management, cross-platform, and fully localizable technology stack has been deployed to support disease intervention and elimination efforts for over ten years. These capabilities were originally developed for the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) to build the Disease Data Management System (DDMS). GeoPrism is the technical foundation for the DDMS and provides hierarchy and ontology management for normalizing disparate datasets by common geographies and ontological terms, integration with DHIS2, and spatial dashboarding capabilities. The DDMS has been implemented in several countries in Africa and Asia, including Zambia, Bioko, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and currently in three provinces in India.

TerraFrame was selected by the Digital Solutions for Malaria Elimination (DSME) initiative to implement the requirements of a Common Geo-Registry (CGR) by leveraging and expanding upon the multi-hierarchy management and ontology capabilities of GeoPrism, which is now called GeoPrism Registry. A workshop in April of 2018 was conducted at the University of Oslo (UiO) to evaluate the DHIS2, GeoPrism, and other platforms as potential candidates for implementing the CGR requirement. The workshop concluded with UiO endorsing TerraFrame’s GeoPrism technology as being several steps ahead of anything in the industry for multi-hierarchy management.

GeoPrism Registry is the latest iteration of the technology that started with the DDMS and has been deployed in Laos, Mozambique, and for the US Federal Government. The core GeoPrism spatial knowledge graphing technology has been deployed for the US Department of Interior and is being used by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, US Fish and Wildlife, and the US Forest Service. Importantly, TerraFrame’s work with the US Federal Government has resulted in significant enhancements to the technology that are being used in health sector implementations and continues to be a revenue stream for improvements and maintenance. By exclusively using an open-source business model, TerraFrame has been able to sustain GeoPrism throughout the years by implementing cross-sectoral enhancements into the core technology so that enhancements and maintenance are not funded by a single industry vertical.

Laos PDR: In 2019, the Laos Malaria Program aimed to stratify villages according to malaria endemicity to help improve resource efficiency. However, access to geographic data was limited, with notable data quality issues and inconsistencies (e.g., missing geo-coordinates, unvalidated village names, inconsistent hierarchies). CHAI worked with the Department of Healthcare and Rehabilitation, the Department of Planning and Cooperation (DPC), and the World Health Organization to define a custodian of a health facility master list and a Ministry of Health (MOH)-wide village master list, improve their quality and management processes, and then deployed the datasets in the GPR platform from 2020-2022. The GPR helped to make standardized and up-to-date lists, hierarchies, and geospatial data accessible to programs across the MOH and its functionalities simplified maintenance and regular update. Since installation, the health facility master list and village list in the GPR have been used to develop an access to care map in Bokeo Province to support the MOH in their planning for distribution of specialty health services and establishment of clinics. In addition, the GPR is being fully integrated with the national DHIS2-based Health Management Information System, to ensure accessibility of content to all MOH programs at any level of the health system. Finally, DPC has engaged with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Home Affairs to deploy additional master lists and associated data to the GPR, such as a medical warehouse and public pharmacy master list which will be available on the GPR platform in 2023.

Mozambique: In Mozambique, the GPR is governed by the Spatial Development Agency (ADE), taking a cross-sectoral management approach. The ADE team was trained on management and use of the GPR platform in 2022. Successive training with MOH agencies will occur to familiarize Registry Administrators and Maintainers with the functionalities of the GPR platform and their roles and responsibilities in reviewing and maintaining datasets. These teams will work together to manage masters lists and geo-coordinates for health facilities, vaccination concentration points, and mobile health brigades in two districts to support vaccine microplanning for routine childhood vaccine distribution. In addition to these datasets, national administrative boundaries and partial health facility lists are available on the platform. The ADE team is actively engaging other MOH departments to expand these master lists to include nationally representative data for health facilities. Ongoing advocacy efforts are underway to bring additional ministry teams (even outside of the ministry of health) to host their data in the platform for central management.

GeoPrism Registry is a multi-tenant platform that is designed to give organizations, such as government ministries, the ability to curate and publish data over which they have the curation mandate, such as master lists, associated hierarchies, and geospatial data for the geographic objects.

Resources

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