After two weeks participating in the Uganda Capacity Program’s HRIS internship program, the six interns were asked to write about their experiences. Their responses were very positive. Here are some excerpts from what they shared:
“I have been able to interface with the Ubuntu platform, install SSH (a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged) and use it for remote login and sharing files, install iHRIS Manage and Qualify… If we continue at this pace, am sure by the end of the six months I will be a consultant as far as the IT environment and HRIS are concerned.” – Barbara Nansamba
“It’s truly been a learning experience. What I’ve been exposed to in just two weeks would probably take an entire semester at the University.” – Barbara Wamala
“I have got experience in working with Linux, especially Ubuntu… I have also got knowledge about SSH for remote connection. Also tried to learn some programming languages like xml, object oriented PHP and javascript that were used in development of the system.” – Bridget Magoba
“…I always look forward to coming to work. My interaction with iHRIS has given me an insight on how to better create and design large secure systems. I had never really interacted with Ubuntu but am getting to be a bit good at it.” – Norbert Mijumbi
“I have been exposed to a lot of things that I was never used to. I am basically happy with the way I am getting used to Linux Operating System.” – Stephen Ocaya
“IntraHealth for just two weeks has been a great experience for me. At IntraHealth I have already acquired good skills in Linux… and I feel like a better computer programmer.” – Dennis Kibiye
Read more about the internship program here.
Carl Leitner will be traveling to Portland, Oregon next week to present at OSCON (Open Source Convention) on July 21st. In addition to his presentation, Carl will be meeting with members of the Open Source Working Group of American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). In his work at IntraHealth, Carl regularly oversees Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) development work and health informatics training in Botswana, Ghana, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Uganda. He also works with regional organizations, such as the West African Health Organization, to ensure successful and sustainable HRIS.
At OSCON, Carl’s presentation will review the technical, political, and social obstacles to strengthening health workforce information in low-resource countries with infrastructure challenges. He will describe the open source iHRIS Suite of national, district, and local HRIS software, iHRIS Manage, iHRIS Qualify and iHRIS Plan, and how they were designed and developed to meet country needs while facing these challenges. He will explain the role of the iHRIS Appliance in providing a low-cost and low-maintenance solution for providing the iHRIS Suite, as well as review where and how the iHRIS Suite is being implemented.
Finally, Carl will describe the role of an HRIS as one part of a complete Health Information System (HIS). He will briefly overview some of the other components of an HIS and discuss some of the open standards used for exchanging data between these components, for example SDMX-HD developed by the World Health Organization. He will discuss the Public Health Information Toolkit (PHIT), which aims to ensure the interoperability of globally recognized open source public health software, including OpenMRS, DHIS2 and iHRIS Manage.
The International Conference on Research in Human Resources for Health was recently held on June 9-11, 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference program was developed around three themes:
The CapacityPlus HRIS team was excited about participating in this important meeting, in part because our paper, Using Routine Human Resources Information Systems to Manage, Measure, and Monitor the Health Workforce, was accepted as a presentation. iHRIS Developer and coauthor of the paper, Dr. Carl Leitner, planned to travel to Rio to present the paper, but unfortunately did not receive his Brazilian visa in time (visa processing times recently increased).
Fortunately, when it was announced during a conference session that Carl could not make it and our HRIS paper was going to be skipped, our former colleague from the Capacity Project, Dr. Danny de Vries, offered to present on Carl’s behalf. Danny is a research fellow on globalizing the health workforce at the University of Amsterdam’s Centre for Global Health and Inequality and was in attendance to present a paper he coauthored (Using the Wage Indicator Websurvey to Monitor Human Resources for Health, De Vries & Tijdens, 2010). With only 30 minutes to prepare for the presentation, Danny’s experience as lead evaluator on the Capacity Project’s Evaluation of Capacity Project’s Human Resources Information System Implementation in Swaziland, Uganda & Rwanda, along with a few quick emails back and forth with Carl were sufficient for the presentation to go smoothly.
Danny highlighted the importance and benefits of implementing a routine HRIS – one that is incorporated into the daily functions of an HR office – and gave an overview of our five-step HRIS Strengthening process. He then explained how HRIS fits into the larger context of a country’s overall health information system. Finally, he presented selected country results, including using data for improving strategic planning, workforce planning and monitoring, operations, and quality assurance.
Danny said the presentation went very well and he thought the audience was very interested. In contrast to a previous explanation of a stalled HRIS implementation in Argentina, Danny said the HRIS Strengthening program developed by the Capacity Project and supported by CapacityPlus came across as well developed and a fruitful source of data for economic modelers interested in health workforce projections. As mentioned by one of the attendees in regards to the difficulty in obtaining timely and accurate information, it is, “not the census, but after the census [that] is the challenge.” It was also noted that the new code of conduct for international recruitment approved by the World Health Organization should be leveraged to argue that each country needs to have an HRIS in place.
Following the presentation, Ms. D.G. Joseph, Chief Director of the Human Resources Development/Employee Wellness Program at South Africa’s Gauteng Provincial Government, approached Danny and requested information on how to develop an HRIS in Gauteng, where she manages over 10,000 health workers. “South Africa really needs this,” she said. Danny referred her to the Chapel Hill HRIS team, and follow-up contact has helped her receive instructions for downloading the iHRIS software and accessing the demos. We also put her in touch with our IntraHealth colleagues working for the Southern Africa Human Capacity Development Coalition.
You can access the conference papers here.
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