The ongoing emergence and resurgence of global pandemics pose serious challenges, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where health systems often lack the capacity to promptly detect and track their potential impacts. Digital epidemiology — which leverages routinely collected health data — holds significant promise in generating timely evidence to guide healthcare decisions and reduce the negative effects of pandemics. This project seeks to enhance the resilience of health systems in LMICs through digital transformation, aiming to improve their preparedness and ability to respond effectively to current and future pandemics.
Project Overview
Objectives
Specific objectives of the project are to:
- Establish current capacity to use data/evidence for healthcare decisions, using Covid-19 and maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) care/outcomes for illustration;
- Develop digital health and intelligent data analytics/visualization tools to facilitate and enhance data access/interpretation; and
- Pilot and assess feasibility of digitalization of healthcare data for timely MNCH decisions.
Workstreams
The project focuses on two Counties in Western Kenya, Kisumu and Siaya, and has three interrelated workstreams (WS), aligned with the specific objectives.
- WS1 - An assessment of current capacity/data quality and protocol development will be followed with an illustrative analysis to showcase use of data to inform policy/practice.
- WS2 - Co-development and implementation of digital health and data analytics/visualization tools and processes to facilitate data access and use for timely decisions
WS3 - Piloting and evaluating feasibility/process of digitalization of healthcare data