Notice E1 Client Registries

Notice E for promoting investments in digital health global goods

openIMIS-based Client Registry

Submitted by Zuzanna Perkowska (SolDevelo) on Fri, 05/08/2020 - 12:53 Last revised by Digital Square on Wed, 12/16/2020 - 03:55.
Two-sentence overview: 

The goal of this project is to increase the scope of the open-source Insurance Management Information System (openIMIS) by extending the beneficiary management module, which already deals with insurees’ personal and identification information, to respond to Client Registry’s (CR) requirements and standards, to be self-sufficient and, at the same time, compatible with the largest open-source programs for healthcare providers through the existing but yet to be extended openIMIS FHIR module. The team composed by Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), the designer and developer of the legacy openIMIS version, implemented in five countries, and experienced with Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems, and SolDevelo, the developer of the openIMIS FHIR module and with experience in integrating health systems, will join their expertise to respond to OpenHIE project requirements in general and to OpenHIE Client Registry Community’s requirements and expectations. 

Executive summary: 

Although several CR specific tools exist, we are convinced that openIMIS can be easily and effectively enhanced to compete in this very specific and well-defined market. To highlight the advantages of this Client Registry for Health we think the word "de-coupling" is good here as most of the existing Social Health Protection IT Tools (OpenIMIS and OpenMRS as well) have their own internal member data tables. It should be crystal clear that the Client Registry is NOT a part of the OpenIMIS packages but it's rather a foundational piece for the whole ecosystem. The CR would solve as a "background database" for all connected systems and that one of the key elements of the registry is the de-duplication and cross-matching of records. This is for sure the most complicated piece of work. 

With already existing functionalities to manage beneficiaries, we will use Digital Square’s investment to build a tool that manages all the client registration in one place. The openIMIS-based CR will be a self-sufficient product. As a standalone tool, the openIMIS-based CR will work with open-source libraries and tools, making it free for use and accessible in Low and Middle-Income Countries. In the core of our tool, we will allow a flexible data model, a strong de-duplication mechanism, a strong and configurable ID mechanism, and an advanced search feature. 

Specific user interfaces will be developed for clients management and administration, including import and export functionalities. Specific “patient identification” modules (based on technologies like fingerprint or QR codes) will allow easy and effective user identification, allowing the implementers to use the best-suited solution for their needs. We want to highlight that our client registry would allow every connected Social Health Protection Implementer to keep their existing business processes and the added value would be that every organization which is connected to the Client Registry would get a real-time response on the "Insurance status". The concept will eliminate time-consuming dB look-ups in each of the implementer's databases and would also avoid double payments of benefits because of un-coordinated member management. The existing openIMIS FHIR module will be enhanced with resources that will meet the relevant Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) profiles and will support "Registration as a Service". Synchronization to the CRVS System (in countries where a solid one is already in place) can be a good option. The reason why you can't use the CRVS System as the central registry is simply because in many countries, people < 16 don't get a National ID with a unique number (but these people request health services as well). 

Quality Assurance and documentation are part of our development processes. To allow easy and efficient installation, we will provide Docker packaging mechanisms satisfying Instant OpenHIE requirements. 

Consortium Team: 

SolDevelo 

  • Responsible for: 

    • technical project management, software development

  • Point of contact: 

    • Jakub Sławiński - SolDevelo CTO

  • Organization’s relevant qualifications

    • SolDevelo is a dynamic IT company focused on delivering high-quality software and innovative solutions. It has a deep expertise in the IT projects management and development, gathering experience in various projects during the last decade, for such institutions as:

      • VillageReach

      • Terre des hommes

      • Grameen Foundation

      • Pathfinder International

      • Benetech

      • FrontlineSMS

      • And many, many others

    • SolDevelo will be able to gather exact requirements, prepare project timeline, manage development according to SCRUM principles and deliver the final results back to the community.

  • Relevant experience and examples of related work

    • SolDevelo has been involved in many opportunities that required skill sets relevant to this particular project, for example OpenMRS (core contributors), Health Level Seven International (HL7) FHIR (OpenMRS Sync 2.0 module), nationwide micro-service based implementations (OpenLMIS), nationwide OpenHIE architecture based implementations (National Health Infrastructure project with such components like OpenELIS, DHIS2, OpenMRS and many other HIE compatible applications, health standards-based workflows for the Client Registry, Facility Registry, Health Management Information System, Shared Health Record, and Interoperability Layer).

  • Qualifications of key members of the proposed project team

    • Kamil Madej

      • Senior-level Java Developer/Team Leader (BSc. Engineering) at SolDevelo

      • Working in international teams for various projects/clients, like:

        • openIMIS

        • OpenMRS

        • MOTECH

        • Terre des hommes

        • Connect for Life

      • Performing code review

      • Creating high-level designs using tools for wireframing

      • Leading several frontend and backend development teams

  • Number of years in operation

    • SolDevelo was established in 2009 and started contributing to openIMIS since January 2019.

 

Swiss TPH

  • Responsible for: 

    • Know-how in Health Beneficiary Registry, openIMIS, inputs for Concept development, openIMIS system/architecture design, drafting of technical specifications for development to be undertaken on openIMIS  

  • Point of contact: 

    • Dragos Dobre - IT Systems Architect 

  • Organization’s relevant qualifications

    • The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) is a world-leading institute in global health, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries. By uniquely combining research, services, and education and training, Swiss TPH aims to improve the health and well being of populations through a better understanding of disease and health systems and by acting on this knowledge.

  • Relevant experience and examples of related work

    • Swiss TPH is currently active in 300 projects in over 100 countries, working across a variety of topics from infectious and non-communicable diseases, environment, society and health as well as health systems and innovative interventions. It has more than 800 employees and students from over 70 nations currently work at Swiss TPH. About 600 are based in Basel, while another 200 are based abroad in 40 different countries.

    • Swiss TPH currently hosts the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Technology Management and eHealth. The Swiss Centre for International Health (SCIH) provides consultancy and project implementation services. As a department of the Swiss TPH, SCIH draws on in-house expertise and synergies between the research and education departments to design and innovate solutions including information systems. The in-house know-how is state-of-the-art knowledge in a broad range of topics including primary healthcare, health economics and financing, health technologies, sexual and reproductive health and health promotion.

    • The Health Economics and Financing and the Health Technology and Telemedicine Unit jointly has been involved in the design and implementation of the Insurance Management Information System (which is the genesis of the openIMIS initiative) since its inception in Tanzania and has supported its implementation in a number of countries. Having worked on grounded solutions with local software vendors and generalizing it for operations by different insurance models it now supports the direction of the software to becoming more modularized and adhering to global standards to ensure better interoperability in its IT environment. 

    • Swiss TPH is currently implementing two projects at scale for deployment of insurance schemes through openIMIS, in Tanzania and Cameroun, and two openIMIS pilots in Chad and Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition, Swiss TPH is actively involved in the development of openIMIS as part of the IT & product team of the openIMIS initiative.

    • In parallel of these health insurance-related projects, Swiss TPH is also implementing projects focused on systems’ interoperability such as a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) in Nigeria where data collected through CommCare is automatically integrated in DHIS2, or more globally, a civil registration system collecting and evaluating birth and death events through ODK and integrating them as tracked entities in DHIS2.

  • Qualifications of key members of the proposed project team

    • Dragos Dobre

      • IT System Architect at Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

      • OMG-Certified Systems Modeling Professional™

      • Over 4 years of IT teaching experience at University Level

      • Management of software life cycle (from specification to development to deployment)

      • Development of open source applications

      • Maintenance of open source software source code

      • Speaking at international conferences

      • Publication of scientific articles

    • Michael Stahl 

      • Involved in various projects on Interoperability and his focus in recent consultancy missions was on linking the health service delivery ICT solutions with the Health Financing side

      • Worked on health identifiers under the Asian Development Bank and worked intensively on strategic solutions for better connecting existing ICT applications within the health domain

      • Involved in a pilot project in Cambodia which aimed on setting up a Health Beneficiary Registry (2018) and is currently advising the National Social Protection Council inPhnom Penh during the set-up of a Social Protection Registry

      • Advisor and facilitator for the GIZ openIMIS project and already worked on process design and requirement specifications for including the formal sector requirements to the product

      • Experience with CRVS Systems and the required linkages to Client Registries (which is the enabler for Government solutions)

  • Number of years in operation

    • Swiss TPH founded in 1943 is based in Basel, Switzerland and is an associated institute of the University of Basel.

Digital Health Atlas: 

openIMIS Initiative page on DHA: https://digitalhealthatlas.org/en/-/projects/775/published

Geographic Reach: 

Tanzania, Nepal, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad

Source code: 

https://github.com/openimis 

WHO Classification: 
Health finance and information system
Final Technical Application: 
PDF icon openimis-based_client_registry_-_final_technical_application.pdf
Application Status: 
Not Approved
Application Tags: 
packaging and deployment
FHIR
client registry
product documentation and manuals
interoperability layer

Comments

Michael Stahl - Sun, 05/10/2020 - 10:24

Hello,
Since the Digital Square website says "Use comments to state your interest in joining a team", I now express my interest.

I have been familiar with the topic of client registries for several years now, and I have received many requests from various countries regarding the existence of "ready-made" beneficiary registries for health and social protection.

Additionally, I have been involved in other Open Source Client Registry projects for the health sector, which turned out to be challenging for large scale implementations. Sharing and learning from this experience might be useful for you.

Please see my profile on Linkedin and feel free t contact me for further collaborations
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-stahl-6b505446/

Caitlin Bowman (Digital Square) - Wed, 05/13/2020 - 10:13

Hi Zuzanna,

Thank you for submitting a concept note for Notice E1. Please note, concept notes should be 3 pages or less. Final concept notes are due May 22 at 5pm EDT.

Thanks,
Caitlin

Carl Fourie (Digital Square) - Wed, 05/20/2020 - 11:33

Thank you for the concept note, a few thoughts and questions for the final version:

  • Could you unpack your plans to meet the OpenHIE CR specification requirements?
  • Also it would be good to touch on the existing matching algorithms as well as ability to add new patient matching algorithms to the solution.
  • Would the Client registry module be a something that could be deployed without all the health financing / claims management aspects or is it expected that the CR deployment would also be a health insurance tool?

Dragos Dobre - Thu, 05/21/2020 - 15:24

Hi Carl. Thank you for the questions and thoughts. We will definitely respond to them in the technical proposal.  

Vikas Dwivedi - Mon, 05/25/2020 - 11:55

Thanks, great concept note. It will be good to clearly describe:

  • Will the CR module be completely integrated with IMIS or deployed separately? what are the security risks if completely integrated?
  • What are the specific areas of work in relation to the OpenHIE CR specifications
  • What are the current matching algorithms/features that exist and what need to be developed?