Request for Application #2019-016

openIMIS Modularization, Nepali Functionality, and Community Development

OpenIMIS-Product Registry Interoperability

Two-sentence overview: 

VillageReach proposes to collaborate with the OpenIMIS community to make OpenIMIS interoperable with an OpenHIE Product Registry powered by PCMT (Product Catalog Management Tool). VillageReach, as lead creators of the open source PCMT, proposes to provide technical advisory services and collaborate with OpenIMIS software developers to establish this important interoperability.

Executive summary: 

OpenIMIS is the leading open source software to realize Universal Health Coverage, and PCMT (Product Catalog Management Tool) is a new Product Registry open source global good. PCMT is being created by VillageReach with support from Digital Square. PCMT will serve as a Product Registry in OpenHIE, meaning it will provide consistent master data about health products (medicines, vaccines and commodities) as they are managed throughout a health information ecosystem. PCMT will help provide consistent product identification, allow interoperability for supply chain visibility, and support adoption of GS1 global standards.

It is critical for OpenIMIS to interoperate with a Product Registry so that medicines and health products provided to patients through insurance coverage can be tracked, ordered, financed, and reported. Having consistent product identifiers across OpenHIE systems allows integration of data, reporting, and interoperability. To that end, a key outcome of this work will be a documented, working interoperability between OpenIMIS and PCMT. This critical outcome will help countries and stakeholders plan adoption of OpenIMIS in an OpenHIE architecture with a PCMT Product Registry as well as use of GS1 for product identification, barcoding and more.

To support OpenIMIS-PCMT interoperability, VillageReach proposes to provide technical advisory services and to collaborate with OpenIMIS software developers. VillageReach brings an extensive background in supply chain with expertise as creators of PCMT and as long-time leaders in the OpenLMIS community. As described in the Consortium Team section, we are seeking partners or a prime organization who would provide the software development on OpenIMIS. VillageReach can help establish the interoperability requirements, can provide any needed software development on the PCMT side to support interoperability, and can support OpenIMIS software developers as they conduct software development on the OpenIMIS side. We also expect to contribute to documentation so that the documented, working interoperability is ready for production use by any implementers and countries.

Consortium Team: 

VillageReach is seeking partners and prime organizations who would want to collaborate to make OpenIMIS interoperable with a PCMT Product Registry. VillageReach wants to be part of a consortium or support a prime organization in the OpenIMIS-PCMT interoperability scope of work. VillageReach can lead any coding/customization of PCMT that might be needed. We would expect the prime organization or partners to provide expert knowledge of OpenIMIS, insurance, UHC, and its data structures and use cases. We expect that prime or partners would lead software development on the OpenIMIS side of the interoperability, while VillageReach would lead any needed software development on the PCMT side. VillageReach would contribute to establishing the interoperability requirements as well as documenting the working interoperability so that it can be adopted for production use by any implementers and countries.

VillageReach brings deep expertise in supply chain as creators of PCMT and as long-time leaders in the OpenLMIS community. We have actively participated in OpenHIE, including co-chairing the OpenHIE Supply Chain Sub-community. VillageReach is an endorser of the Principles for Digital Development. We proactively support open standards, interoperability, global standards, and open source. We have a track record of effective software development that is agile, transparent, and community-driven along with a rich history of helping advance global goods to support global health and development.

Workstream: 
Nepal Feature Requests
Digital Health Atlas: 

Please see attachment with email request for PCMT to be added to the Digital Health Atlas.

Geographic Reach: 

OpenIMIS and PCMT have not been deployed together in a country yet.

WHO Classification: 
Data interchange interoperability and accessibility
Supporting Documents: 
Application Tags: 
interoperability
openhie
universal health coveage
product registry
supply chain
Application Status: 
Incomplete

Comments

In your final application you might also want to give examples of potential field testing sites and maybe even future implementers. Kindly also be more explicit on the product, you could actually contribute on the openIMIS side, e.g in terms of developing a (FHIR) API for the data exchange.