Digital Square Investments in Global Goods

Notice F2 Investments

Enhancing the shelf-readiness & scale of the Reveal platform

Reveal is an open-source digital global good that enables country governments and implementing partners to use geospatial data and technology to efficiently and effectively deliver life-saving intervention campaigns. Akros aims to enhance the shelf-readiness and ability of Reveal to effectively scale by a) enabling over-the-air (OTA) updates to automate software installation, configuration, and routine updates, b) improving quality assurance (QA) processes and c) strengthening the Reveal community.

Funded all work packages

Improving the CommCare Installation Process using Containers

The goal of this project is to decrease the complexity of installing CommCare on a single server (“monolithic deployment”) so that independent teams can quickly and easily get started with a deployment of CommCare and begin collecting point-of-care data, which will be achieved by containerizing a full deployment of CommCare.

Funded Work Package 2: Implementation of Monolithic Container | Work Package 3: Implement and Test Upgrade Process with New Software Version | Work Package 5: Create Instant OpenHIE CHIS Package

Shelf Readiness of OpenMRS through Capacity Building for Quality Assurance and Compliance

OpenMRS and the University of Washington aim to advance shelf-readiness by utilizing the OpenMRS fellowship program to develop a capacity-building pipeline of highly-skilled, advanced quality assurance engineers for the OpenMRS Quality Assurance program of rigorous, comprehensive, proactive, and systematic quality assurance. By bringing together experienced community members in the QA team and local in-country engineers, this investment will be used to 1) build a structured and measurable QA fellowship pipeline for community sustainability and local country-based capacity and 2) strengthen OpenMRS product and interoperability quality assurance and compliance.

Funded Work Package 1: Implementation to Community in the QA Engineering Pipeline

Everwell Health Solutions: Shelf readiness to enhance local capacity and uniformity

The Everwell Hub is an open-source platform that supports treatment recovery and program management of healthcare domains such as Tuberculosis, HIV, COVID, mental health, and beyond. This project seeks to enhance the Everwell Hub, which not only digitizes a patient's journey from awareness to recovery but also helps monitor patients' treatment regimes in terms of diagnosis and adherence. In addition, we want to develop Everwell Hub as an independent & open-sourced platform so that it enables more autonomy by users for setting up, managing, and customizing deployments.

Funded Work Package 2: Automated deployment setup | Work Package 5: Adoptation and Compliance with OpenHIE Standards

Notice F1 Investments

Tamanu for COVID-19 digital certificates

Tamanu is a fit-for-purpose patient-level electronic medical record (EMR) designed to address the distinct healthcare challenges of the Pacific. Our goal is to ensure that patients in the Pacific can travel and participate in the global economy. Including vaccination certificates in Tamanu will help us reach this goal. This investment would go towards developing vaccination certificates (including secure Visible Digital Seals - VDS) in line with the World Health Organization’s Digital documentation of COVID-19 certificates: vaccination status (DDCC: VS): technical specifications and implementation guidance. In addition, the system will align with HL7 FHIR, a free and open data exchange standard, to ensure that data for the DDCC: VS is captured in a consistent and interoperable way. In addition, we will be able to code the data using either the ICAO or EUDCC standards.

Funded all work packages

CommCare for Equitable COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery

CommCare for equitable COVID-19 vaccine delivery is an open-source digital solution to track and support every vaccine recipient before, during, and after vaccination. The template application has been customized and implemented at scale in Somalia and Jamaica. Through this project, Dimagi will develop and publish documentation for its COVID-19 vaccine solution on installation and deployment methods, quality assurance testing, and product information to align with the shelf readiness framework; further, in recognition of the need for vaccine certificates will build an integration guide on how to platform can integrate with eGov’s DIVOC system and develop a means of making integrations with similar platforms more seamless.

Funded all work packages

Notice F0 Investments

Supporting a FHIR Native Reference Implementation of the ANC Smart Guidelines

The goal of the WHO SMART Guidelines is to help accelerate and systematize the consistent application of WHO-recommended guidelines for digital health applications. To help achieve this bold vision, we believe the next generation of digital health applications that are FHIR native is needed. This project seeks to create a 100% FHIR native reference application of the WHO Digital Adaption Kit (DAK) for Antenatal Care (ANC). This will allow the application to be configured directly with L3 guidelines represented as FHIR resources in the ANC DAK FHIR Implementation Guide. We will develop this using OpenSRP FHIR Core built on top of Google’s Android FHIR SDK. The project will be led by Ona, working in close collaboration with the Summit Institute for Development (SID) in Indonesia.

Funded all work packages

DAK-based OpenMRS 3 ANC Package

OpenMRS aims to improve patient care by offering quality, shelf-ready solutions that provide healthcare workers with a better user experience and are easy for implementers to reuse and deploy. This project seeks to create a standards-based OpenMRS Antenatal Care (ANC) MVP package using new OpenMRS frontend technology based on the ANC DAK. OpenMRS Inc. will work with Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH), Mekom Solutions, and Partners In Health (PIH) to realize this project. This consortium will (a) adapt the ANC DAK for OpenMRS end-users through a specifications analysis and user experience assessment, (b) create a base O3 ANC package incorporating the ANC DAK’s core data dictionary, functional, and non-functional requirements,(c) extend the O3 ANC package to include the ANC DAK’s decision support component, and (d) incorporate ANC DAK-based program indicators and reporting into the ANC package.

Funded all work packages

Notice E1 Investments

SanteMPI Client Registry

This project seeks to improve several key areas of SantéMPI, a robust and proven online/offline capable Client Registry (CR) solution with a rich global history, to strengthen the ability of Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) to adopt, sustain, evolve and scale this technology as a global good by: improving installation and configuration processes including localization, enhancing tooling for end-users to more easily customize deployments, upgrading standards support from FHIR R3 to R4, improving operational support through analytics and expanding community documentation. Our organization and partners will contribute to achieving these goals by leveraging and applying decades of deep expertise and experience in open source digital health software including: software innovation, development, large-scale implementation, support and capacity building; development and use of open standards such as FHIR, IHE and OpenHIE; along with our in-depth experience developing and implementing the original MEDIC CR solution and evolving it into the next generation SantéMPI CR.

Funded all work packages

Notice E0 Investments

Advancing Instant OpenHIE

This project builds on the initial phase of the Instant OpenHIE project which aims to reduce the costs and skills required for software developers to rapidly deploy an OpenHIE architecture for quicker initial solution testing and a starting point for faster production implementation and customization. Instant OpenHIE provides a simple way for technical persons to install and see a complex system working against a real-world use case, allowing technical persons to illustrate how interoperability can work to solve health challenges and demonstrate how an interoperability architecture could be created using open-source tools and standards. This phase will focus on advancing the community and expanding to include an additional clinical use case leveraging the HL7 FHIR standard.

Funded all work packages

Advancing OpenELIS Global Shelf-Readiness through Improved Quality Assurance

OpenELIS Global aims to improve its Shelf-Readiness through a transition from a manual software release testing model to a robust, comprehensive, and systematic automated testing process that will improve efficiency and reliability, reduce maintenance costs for the software, and facilitate re-use of OpenELIS Global code by community members. This investment will result in: adoption of the OpenHIE testing framework and tooling for automated testing of OpenELIS; collaboration with the OpenHIE Laboratory Information Systems Community of Practice (LIS COP) to establish re-usable LIS interoperability test cases; and dissemination of LIS/LIMS software testing protocols, guidance, and learning resources which can be adapted by other global goods communities to improve software testing practices.

Funded Work Package 1: Implement an Automated Test Portfolio for OpenELIS Global | Work Package 2: Build a Portfolio of Generalized LIS Test Cases

Improving the Automated Testing, Interoperability, and Privacy of the Open Smart Register Platform (OpenSRP)

The goal of this project is to improve the automated testing, interoperability, and privacy of the Open Smart Register Platform (OpenSRP) as a point-of-service application in alignment with the OpenHIE architecture. The goal of this project is to improve test automation, support mobile Care Services Discovery (mCSD), and mask personally identifiable information.

Funded Work Package 1: Improving QA by adding an automated testing framework and improving modular test coverage to 80% | Work Package 2: Establishing OpenHIE interoperability by improving mobile Care Services Discovery (mCSD) support

OpenBoxes Shelf Readiness Project

OpenBoxes is an open source logistics management information system designed to meet the supply-chain management demands of public health systems. The system is used to manage supplies and medications for healthcare facilities and disaster relief efforts. A major gap identified in the shelf-readiness of OpenBoxes is user-friendly deployment and configuration of the software. Partners In Health (PIH) proposes to leverage its decade of experience with OpenBoxes implementation, development, and project management to lead the OpenBoxes Shelf Readiness Project. The goal of this project is to create a user-friendly installation and setup package that is available online and makes implementation independently manageable by a non-technical audience so that the software is more easily deployable by users who need it.

Funded all work packages

OpenFn as a FOSS microservice: click-to-configure, InstantHIE compatible, supported by OpenFn.org

OpneFN is a rapildy deployable intagration service that has served in supporting point to point data exchange. In this exciting project OpenFN will be simplifying setup and expanding access to our open-source tools and deployment strategies. Leveraging the experience of a range of data integration projects OpenFN will be strengthening some of the core functionality of the solution and open source key aspects which will allow implementers to deploy configured interactions locally and or port from the cloud offering. The project will work to integratate and align with the Instant OpenHIE project.

Funded Work Package 1: Instant OpenHIE Compliance | Work Package 2: Installation and Deployment | Work Package 3: Enhanced installation support | Work Package 4: Product documentation for open source software | Work Package 5: Development & Convening of Open Source Steering Committee | Work Package 6: Advanced Community Support

openIMIS Shelf Readiness

The openIMIS solution continues to be an exciting choice for health insurace solutions for low resource settings, with communities growing and additional training and developments happening monthly. Building on the ongoing investments by groups such as GIZ and the technical developments by the community this next phase builds on the previous works funded under Notice C and D by Digital Square. The project will expand on the FHIR module and strengthen the deployment approach to align as part of Instant OpenHIE.

Funded Work Package 1: openIMIS FHIR Module

OpenMRS Quality Assurance for Interoperability

OpenMRS aims to advance our shelf- readiness by producing high-quality interoperable software and increasing trust in our system through rigorous, comprehensive, systematic quality assurance. By bringing together experienced community members and collaborating with other global goods communities, this investment will be used to 1) extend OpenMRS automated test portfolio, 2) address QA for OpenMRS interoperability testing, and 3) strengthen the adoption of the improved QA for community-wide utilization and conduct dissemination of a QA model to the broader global goods community.

Funded all work packages

Reveal to Guide Precision Health: from demand to shelf readiness

Reveal is a “young” but widely implemented global good that provides spatial targets and tools to improve quality of field-service delivery. The potential applications for Reveal are vast - from ensuring vaccinations reach the last mile, to supporting delivery of mass drug administration - but the packaging and configurability level of the tool is immature, which bottlenecks adding technical use-cases, geographic context, and partners.

Funded all work packages

Shelf-Ready Content Management Using OCL for OpenMRS

OpenMRS believes shelf-ready, interoperable software means providing users with an easily configurable tool for managing terminologies and metadata that is also required by OpenMRS’ role in Instant OpenHIE, either as a Shared Health Record or as a Point-of-Service system. By bringing together implementers, community members, and representatives from Open Concept Lab (OCL) and other global goods, this investment will be used to develop an OCL for OpenMRS MVP that addresses priority use cases, including those that simplify the workflows for creating collections that use standard concepts and exporting these collections to OpenMRS instances that are part of a small or large scale deployment.

Funded all work packages

Tamanu: Electronic Medical Record

Our goal is to improve healthcare in Pacific Islands through the implementation of Tamanu, our free, open-source, patient-level electronic medical record (EMR) built for the uniquely remote settings across the region, with an offline-first, sync- enabled design across both desktop and mobile. Beyond Essential Systems (BES) is well placed to achieve this goal, as we have in-depth, contextually appropriate experience in delivering successful, transformative digital projects in ten countries across the Asia Pacific Region, with partners including the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, WHO, UNFPA and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Funded Work Package 1: Easy Installation and Deployment | Work Package 2: Thorough API Documentation

Notice D1 Investments

Building the openIMIS community of developers for the next phase of growth

The goal of this project is to strengthen and grow the developers community for openIMIS. In line with the open source vision for the tool, Bluesquare is looking to support current and new partners to continue developing the new platform in line with the established architecture.

Funded Work Package 1: Migration of the Beneficiary Enrollment Workflow to the modular platform with minor revisions

Claim categorization using Artificial Intelligence: a proof of concept

The goal of this project is to develop an automatic claims categorization module for openIMIS based on state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms, standards, and methodologies which will drastically reduce the manpower, resources and time required to review a reimbursement claim. As a contribution towards achieving Universal Health Coverage, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) designed and developed the health insurance software openIMIS. Other partners joined later such as the IT firm SolDevelo for specific work areas, thus bringing together state of the art Public Health and Software development expertise.

Funded all work packages

Support for Formal Sector schemes and Configurable Claims Workflow in openIMIS

The goal of this project is to enable the coverage and management of health insurance schemes in the Formal Sector (for people with regular wages and normal work hours), further improving the claim review process by establishing a configurable claim workflow engine and building the community by integrating the users’ organizations.

Funded Work Package 1

Formal Sector Registration and Payment-Integration

The goal of the Support for Health Insurance Schemes in the Formal Sector is to expand the scope of the insurance members covered from informal sector into the formal sector; which includes employers, Sacco and other organized groupings. The process is best combined with the Payment workflow to ensure linkages to an accounting system and mobile payment gateways.

In that respect, the two processes combined drive a better user experience for the informal and formal sector signups and payment for the insurance services, reducing paperwork filled by the members and agents and hamering the Turn Around Timelines (TAT) for the issuance of the policy details to the member (to be made electronic and near real-time).

Funded all work packages

Notice D Investments

Define Once, Run Anywhere: Portable Indicator Reporting for Multiple Global Goods Consortium

The consortium will enable multiple Global Goods point of service (PoS) systems, including DHIS2 Tracker, OpenMRS, and OpenLMIS to quickly produce portable, standards-defined indicators based on transactional data. This will be done by strengthening the HAPI FHIR Server ecosystem, the most popular FHIR server in the world, and the FHIR store and API for multiple Global Goods.

Funded Work Package 1

mADX on FHIR on Android Consortium

Most mobile health reporting is generated server side or in a HMIS. Our goal is to provide a standardized way for health apps to make real-time reports accessible to health workers offline for better decision making. We will create a set of open source libraries, expanding HAPI FHIR and CQL tools, to enable Android based apps to quickly generate health reports offline using a standards based approach defined in the mADX Profile.

Funded Work Package 1: MVP Android Library Development

Towards an Integrated HIE Approach to Patient-Level Indicator Reporting Consortium

To support with an integrated approach to patient level monitoring, we propose the use of a health information exchange that supports onboarding of multiple digital health systems through HL7 FHIR-based interfaces, providing a common way to connect and register data to a longitudinal client record, on which indicator calculations are performed.

Funded Work Package 1: OCL Support | Work Package 2: OpenMRS | Work Package 4: Bahmni Support

Notice C0 Investments

OpenLMIS: advancing a collaborative, open, and growing community

OpenLMIS is a logistics management information system used to track and manage data for health commodities moving and being used across health systems. This proposal seeks support for community-requested feature development and provide ongoing releases.

Strengthening the OpenMRS implementer ecosystem through community, quality assurance, education, and partnership

OpenMRS is an open source, integrated electronic medical records platform aimed at resource-constrained settings. This proposal seeks to strengthen OpenMRS by gaining insight into the impact of OpenMRS on country health systems by better understanding this growing ecosystem of OpenMRS implementers and the 3,000+ implementations of the OpenMRS system.

Integration of the OpenELIS open-source laboratory information system with leading clinical and logistics information systems

OpenELIS is an open-source electronic laboratory information system software used to track patient testing, diagnosis, and results communication. This proposal will integrate OpenELIS with OpenMRS, Bahmni and OpenLMIS using direct bridges and health information exchange.

Zero to mHero: a packaged workflow for technologists

mHero is a two-way, mobile phone-based communication system that connects ministries of health and health workers. This proposal is to make mHero easier to launch, test, and deploy by developing a standardized and streamlined containerization, orchestration, and configuration of mHero, using Docker or a similar technology.

An Instant OpenHIE

An Instant OpenHIE is a preconfigured version of the OpenHIE architecture and reference technologies optimized for low- and middle-income countries workflows. This proposal is to fund time to invest in installation options and rapid configuration scripts and in creating needed mediators to meet the project needs.

DHIS2 utility suite

DHIS2 is a flexible, open-source health information system that allows users to collect, manage, and visualize data. This proposal is to fortify DHIS2 with a suite of tools and utilities that will provide more efficient administration and configuration, integration with other data collection platforms, and the ability to perform more advanced analytics through connectivity with more advanced business intelligence tools.

Notice C1 Investments

DHIS2 as an analytics, reporting, and visualization solution for openIMIS

DHIS2 is a flexible, open-source health information system that allows users to collect, manage, and visualize data. openIMIS is an open-source insurance management information system to provide a comprehensive system linking patient, provider, and payer data. This proposal will develop the openIMIS analytics solution using DHIS2 as the core and primary platform.

Develop a claim submission, enrollment, and enrollment verification module with a clinical point of service application using the relevant HL7 FHIR standards, openIMIS, and OpenMRS

openIMIS is an open-source insurance management information system to provide a comprehensive system linking patient, provider, and payer data. OpenMRS is an open-source, integrated electronic medical records platform (EMR) aimed at resource-constrained settings where structured patient record keeping systems (specifically, electronic medical record systems) can improve health outcomes. This proposal will build the working integration between openIMIS and OpenMRS to develop claim submission, enrollment, and enrollment verification module with a clinical point of service application using the relevant HL7 FHIR standards.

Integrating openIMIS with Bahmni: a Nepal-based proof-of-concept project

Facility-based EHR, NepalEHR, is Nepal's national EMR system and is built on the OpenMRS distribution with Bahmni, with embedded protocols and the ability to track patient, supply, laboratory, radiology, and pharmacy data. This proposal is to integrate openIMIS with Bahmni through a proof-of-concept claim submission module. The development of this solution will make openIMIS interoperable with national health information architectures in Nepal.

Notice B Investments

Strengthening the Open Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (OpenCRVS) System

Open Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (OpenCRVS) is an open source system supporting the digitization of common processes for civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS), particularly those found in low resource countries. OpenCRVS is a partnership between Plan International and Jembi Health Systems with a number of other collaborators. To date, the project has documented requirements and business processes in a number of countries in Africa and Asia and developed a prototype application. This proposal will supplement other funding streams and allow for the expansion of the software capabilities of the OpenCRVS project.

Strengthening and Expanding the Open Health Information Mediator (OpenHIM)

The Open Health information Mediator (OpenHIM) provides an interoperability solution that makes it as easy as possible to connect systems and exchange relevant data, whilst ensuring security and privacy. The OpenHIM is a an existing open source middleware used to enable interoperability between component health information systems, either individually or as part of a health information exchange (HIE). It is currently one of the reference technologies for the interoperability layer of the Open Health Information Exchange (OpenHIE) community project.

DHIS2 Community of Practice

DHIS2 is the national scale health management information system (HMIS) across 55 countries and Indian states, and scaling up in an additional 33. Beyond the principal application of DHIS2 as an HMIS, we see DHIS2 being applied as national WASH, logistics, agriculture, land tenure, community health, and education information systems. Additionally, DHIS2 is now being used as the central information system for several multinational donor databases and thousands of NGO projects. The University of Oslo aims to minimize the barriers to DHIS2 adoption and full utilization.

Illuminate Data with a DHIS2 Business Intelligence Connector

Population Services International (PSI) would like to partner with technology firm BAO Systems and the University of Oslo (UiO) to develop a connector between Power BI, Microsoft's suite of business analytic tools, and DHIS2. The connector will enable non-technical users to easily share data between DHIS2 and Power BI in order to visualize and compare vital information from multiple data sources. Power BI allows health program managers to affordably and quickly generate dynamic infographics that better communicate data, thereby informing health program strategy and improving health outcomes.

OpenMRS Sync 2.0 Module Development, Implementations and Maintenance

This proposal is about building a new Sync 2.0 module that will be a replacement for the OpenMRS legacy Sync module. The new module will be based on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), a flexible next generation standards framework created by HL7, and atom feeds as a communication channel between different nodes. This new solution will be secure, reliable and provide OpenMRS a completely new level of interoperability. After implementing FHIR it will be possible to synchronize data between OpenMRS and other systems, that implement the FHIR specification.

Packaging OpenSRP for Scale and Community-Driven National Adoption

OpenSRP (Open Smart Register Platform) is an open-source mobile health platform to empower frontline health workers and simultaneously provide program managers and policy makers with current data for decision and policy-making. A committed community of technology, research and implementation partners has evolved the software to a point of early maturity characterized by multiple deployments, high performing technology at scale, and emerging documentation around specific use cases for RMNCAH, TB, HIV, Malaria and Early Childhood Development.

Global Healthsites Mapping Project: Building a Curated Open Data Commons of Facility Data with OpenStreetMap

The Global Healthsites Mapping Project is building a global commons of health facility data by making OpenStreetMap useful to the medical community and humanitarian sector. This open data approach invites organizations to share health facility data and collaborate to establish an accessible global baseline of health facility data. Understanding the health capacity of a region is a vital asset in times of emergency and for day to day operational work in the health sector. Maintaining a high quality, global Healthsites dataset cannot be done in isolation. Over the past few years we established partnerships with The MissingMaps, CartONG, The International Committee of the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières The International Hospital Federation, The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Kartoza and others to inform both the system design and provide data for the platform.

Building an Open Source LIS Technologies Community of Practice

Our team aims to support the building of a community of practice to serve as an organizational home for the open source laboratory information systems, OpenELIS Global and BLIS, and the independent open source laboratory instrument interface software, OpenLabConnect. In addition, the team aims to support building out of the laboratory sub-community of practice under the OpenHIE community to develop the workflows, transactions, technologies, and supporting materials for integrating laboratory information systems into the larger facility-level and upper-level eHealth ecosystems using the OpenHIE design pattern and technologies.

OpenLMIS Advocacy and Community Engagement

OpenLMIS is an open source electronic logistics management information system (LMIS) that has been designated a Global Good by the Digital Square initiative and is supported by a community of health, technical, and financing partners working collaboratively to advance health logistics data management globally. The primary purpose of this proposal is to request support for advocacy activities for the Initiative.

Expanding the Bahmni Hospital System as a FOSS Project

Bahmni is an easy to use, complete, open source Hospital Information System (HIS) and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) that has been built in the Global South to meet the needs of low resource environments. Bahmni is a distribution of the OpenMRS medical record platform, with a user interface built from the ground up. It also supports Odoo (formerly OpenERP), OpenELIS, and dcm4chee, providing an integrated robust solution that manages patient information in a flexible fashion through the care cycle, including registration, various points-of-care, investigations, lab orders and results management, PACS and billing.

Notice A Investments

Bahmni: Transition

In collaboration with DIAL, Digital Square is supporting the evolution the Bahmni governance by creating a new Bahmni Coalition and giving it full ownership over the Bahmni product and initiative, transforming Bahmni from being a ThoughtWorks-owned-and-operated project to a collaborative open-source one hosted through OpenMRS Inc. To speed up and smooth this transition, Digital Square and DIAL are supporting the following activities:

• Collaborative development work on community-prioritized product evolution
• Set-up of processes and tooling for FOSS development
• Creation of a Development Team Reference Manual
• Development of Standard Processes for Subcontracting
• Transitioning of Bahmni IP from ThoughtWorks to the coalition

Digital Health Atlas: Core Development and Implementation Support

In collaboration with the WHO, we are supporting an upgrade of the existing Digital Health Atlas to provide country portals and country requested functionality. The Digital Health Atlas is a web-based based technology registration and assessment system that enables governments, technologists, and implementers, as well as donors, to manage information about existing and new digital health deployments. It supports cataloging related to scale, functionality, data capture and use, interoperability and standards, as well as use-cases and geographical scope of deployment. Collaborative functional requirements gathering with intended users of the registration system in the West African region will guide the specific functionality of the system and ensure usability, stakeholder relevance, and uptake. Support will be provided to Ebola affected countries. Learn more about the Digital Health Atlas here.

eIDSR: Core Development

Jembi Health Systems, Vecna Cares, Dimagi and Fio are developing an integrated disease surveillance solution that leverages the value of each of their technological innovations and our community of practice in interoperability. At the core, the solution would see the enabling of CommCare and Fionet to leverage published health standards (OpenHIE, HL7 FHIR) to communicate with a Health Information Exchange through the OpenHIM and submit and query patient level data. The system would also show the ability to trigger alerts based on submitted data and create the opportunity to have patient level data feed a national data warehouse (such as DHIS2) and leverage mHero for communication. This system would ease the burden on community health workers, clinicians, laboratory technicians, and health center admin in under-resourced areas through a more seamless connection between and visibility of data collection points, diagnostics, and workflow support. Government bodies and implementing partners would have better visibility into the data collection and management through this cohesive integrated approach to infectious disease data management. Most importantly, this sustainable solution would provide beneficiaries in critical areas a faster, more reliable connection to critical care and diagnostics for the disease burden pertinent to their district, region, or country.

Global Open Facility Registry (GOFR): Core Development and Implementation

A consortium comprising eHealth Africa, IntraHealth, JSI, and RTI are working on the development of curation tools for managing multiple list of health facilities in order to support ministries of health efforts to develop and maintain a Master Facility List and link with existing public sources of health facility data. Country specific support for implementation of the GOFR tools is being provided to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

iHRIS Foundation: Core Development and Community Support

The iHRIS Foundation , with IntraHealth as secretariat, will focus the development of features and functions to respond to requests from the iHRIS community, including ministries of health and health professional associations; as well as prepare the platform for broader use in new domains. Freed from the strict structure of projects and dependency on piecemeal funding, the iHRIS community, led by the Foundation, will be able to address longstanding issues that affect all users and offer support for new architectures to optimize the functionality and power of iHRIS. New tools, documentation, and capabilities for iHRIS will make it easier to use, more powerful, and more interoperable with the various health information ecosystems utilized by the global community. Improved and more readily available training and learning materials will increase the number of users and their capacity for making full use of the software. These improvements to iHRIS will provide the men and women who make decisions regarding human resources in the health sector with the data they need to better understand how their health systems are working, where their needs are greatest, and how to best meet those needs.

Open Data Kit 2 (ODK2): Core Development and Transition

Global development organizations, and country-based programs increasingly rely on mobile data collection and management tools for a wide range of activities relating to the measurement, evaluation, and delivery of health programs. The collection and use of accurate and timely data is essential to organizations, their intended beneficiaries, and donors. ODK 2.0, from University of Washington, builds on the experience of ODK 1.0. ODK 2.0 has been under development for a number of years and needs to be transitioned to a multi-stakeholder open source community as part of support for more complex mobile data collection scenarios:

• Data management needs are increasing as mobile data collection moves away from collecting one-time survey data to collecting longitudinal data.
• As tools extend to more sophisticated applications, a deployment architect must be able to perform the necessary customizations to locality and over time. ·
• With a growing ecosystem of global good software tools, it is important to have seamless configuration, interoperability and linkages between tools
  • Network infrastructure and connectivity continue to pose significant challenges to mobile data collection, so it is essential that tools function in environments with intermittent mobile connectivity.

OpenLMIS: Core Development and Community Support

A consortium comprising VillageReach, JSI and Ona will develop the features identified during the recent gap analysis work. The consortium seeks to provide the following outcomes:

• Provide feature parity between TZM eLMIS and OpenLMISv3 to the greatest degree possible within funding limits, thereby enabling a cost-effective and efficient path for existing eLMIS countries to upgrade to v3.x
• Add compelling new features and enhancements to existing and new modules using the improved architecture for new country adoption
• Grow the OpenLMIS community by developing Africa-based resources that can eventually serve as software development and implementation partners, regional support centers and code schools.
• Support the OpenLMIS community by continuing to support the Core team providing fundamental support to the community and facilitate the governance, product and technical committees.

Pre-Notice Investments

OpenLMIS: Gap Analysis

In the spring of 2017, Digital Square, in collaboration with VillageReach, supported JSI to conduct a gap analysis between the functionality present in eLMIS and that in OpenLMIS 3.x to ensure that countries wishing to adopt OpenLMIS 3.x have an upgrade path. Identified functional gaps were prioritized based on country needs.