Digital Square aims to understand whether digital financial solutions can enhance health outcomes and efforts in health systems strengthening in countries where health systems have limited resources. As part of the scope, a two-phased module wise approach will be used for the study. Secondary research will be conducted in Module I to understand the “Impact of Digitization in Digital Financial Services (DFS) on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Government schemes for Disease and Family Planning in three geographies (India, Egypt and UAE)”.
We will be collecting the data from different Ministries/ Health Departments, various stakeholders, financial service provider and institutions that are actively involved in health care financing. We will also be taking consideration of various case studies implemented in different countries which impact Health System Strengthening. The objective of the study will be to analyze:
1. Reduction in Government Expenditure
2. Reduction in out-of-pocket expense of beneficiaries
3. Reach Out – Increase in number of beneficiaries
4. Improved Performance of Health Systems
In Module-II, primary research will be conducted in selected geographies in India, Egypt and UAE within a span of 6 months to gauge the impact of digitization on financial health protection. The primary search will measure the impact of digitization in Digital Financial Services for UHC and TB Schemes in these countries.
IQVIA has successfully executed more than 150 large scale, health care monitoring, evaluation, research studies and surveys on improving quality of care, performance of healthcare systems, utilization of healthcare services and digital health service provision. We will leverage our domain expertise and existing client base in the areas of UHC, Government schemes associated with Disease Management and Family Planning.
IQVIA – the world’s leading provider of healthcare consulting, research & data analytics services, with revenue of over $10 billion in 2018, operates in over 100 countries and serves over 5,000 healthcare customers. IQVIA is a leader in providing varied Information & Communications Technology (ICT) solutions to the healthcare industry both in the public and private sector. Our ICT solution portfolio ranges from setting up health information exchange for a city, government compliance solutions, remote patient monitoring systems, provider focused training solutions, health and hospital information systems etc. IQVIA has designed, developed, deployed, and maintained numerous mobile and web-based applications across the globe.
• In India, we are actively engaged with National Health Authority (NHA) for the implementation of Universal Health Coverage, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for creating India’s first National digital health resource repository and Central TB Division for NIKSHAY program (TB Control Program).
• In Egypt, we are providing Consultancy on Program Design, Strategic Plan and Implementation Plan for the National Insurance Program.
• In UAE, we are associated with Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and our system connects more than 15,000 physicians, 2,500 healthcare providers, more than 65 payers & third-party administrators with more than 150 hits on the platform every second.
IQVIA is open for partnership or collaboration with the organization in digital health financial services providers for potential support in the implementation in subsequent phases of implementation for conducting Pilots (subject to budget availability).
Comments
Application to Study DFS for Health Systems
I am applying for a place for Master of Science in DFS for Health Systems related programme, in response to your advertisement. I am Michael Phandera, holder of Bachelor of Science in Information and Communication Technology with Upper Second Class from Mzuzu University, Malawi. I am so passionate of pursuing master’s degree in Digital Finance for Health as I know it will boost my professionalism as well as academic career.
As one of Software engineers in Malawi I meet a lot of problems but worst of all is that almost all companies in the country purchase software from abroad or else they use manual systems. This is negatively affecting much of Malawi Software development industry as almost everything is bought. This triggered my zeal to do a research on this problem so that when I finish my master’s I should have both understanding of our software market and build world class software using for Health.
I feel that my Upper Second Class graded bachelor’s degree which most of courses covered are software development-oriented stuff and over 3 years extensive experience in Software engineering and Data Management has prepared me enough for this program. In these years of experience, I have worked in huge and reputable companies; for example, NITEL, UNDP, Luke International, Mzuzu University, to mention a few, with this qualification and experience I feel I can make it through this program.
My interest in this area was first aroused during my undergraduate studies at the Mzuzu University where I studied BSc in Information and Communication Technology. In my final year was required to develop Software System as requirement to get a degree hence I developed Payroll Management System which became the best project in my class that it was awarded 80% and also i helped my class mate in developing remote patient diagnoser web app. With this best performance I was motivated to take software development and Data management career.
In additional to that, my interest was increased when I worked in a couple of companies in software development departments. For example, Recently, I was subcontracted by C-tech systems to develop C# webservice (ASP.NET) to expose Lilongwe Waterboard Prepaid billing database (MS SQL) to their website (PHP), so that customers should be able get tokens based on meter number and date range entered. I worked at UNDP as Software developer and Database Engineer where I was in team of three developing Malawi Disaster Information Management system Prototype version and at Luke International as Software developer and at NITEL as Software Engineer under payment solutions section where we integrated services providers to wallet providers e.g. we connected ESCOM prepaid system, NWB, AZAM TV,BWB to Mpamba,MO626, Airtel Money and we frequently developed websites, software systems backed by MS SQL, MySQL, PHP, JavaScript, C#, to mention a few.
I can assure you of best results if you give me this opportunity since I have already demonstrated the same to Mzuzu University during my degree study financed by Malawi government Loan scheme program where I won Best Student Award, I scored highest mark in my Individual System project (80%) and I was awarded best degree grade in my class (Upper Second Class) and I have also basic data science skills which I attained through Machine Learning and Data science workshop at MHub.
I have over 3 years’ experience in both Software engineering and Data Management Industry and academic position. With this vast experience I feel it is making me very suitable for this program. I feel advancing my education will have a real meaning in my life as It will give me wide range of solutions for solving daily problems my National is meeting.
Though this strong passion towards this program and vast experience background I do not have funds for this degree hence I hope of finding an opportunity from you that this dream is turned into reality.
I enjoy being challenged and engaging with projects that require me to work outside my comfort and knowledge set, as continuing to learn new things and development techniques are important to me and the success of my country or global at large.
As I said before that I enjoy challenged and engaging with projects that require me to work outside my comfort and knowledge set, as continuing to learn new things and development techniques hence after I finish this program I want to purse PhD in the same field so that I can join academia to teach/train the youth so that we have many competent people in field of Digital Finance for Health systems in my country for better World.
I feel pursuing academic position after my PhD studies, that is after my master’s degree, since I have heart of sharing knowledge to other people so that the upcoming professionals, who cannot afford studying abroad as this program is not available in Malawi, should be equipped with this knowledge in local University where I will get employed as I am sure of introducing it. I think with industry experience that will make me a better teacher as I will tell my students real life things.
When it comes to my hobbies I enjoy learning about new culture, watching movies, gaming, reading articles and watching TV
Technical feedback
We advise that the proposed research inquiry as written does not resonate with the intended purpose of the RFA, which is to landscape the impact of DFS on financial protection (in an effort to advance progress towards UHC) and understand the effect of DFS and digitization writ large on both the supply/production of health and the demand/utilization of health services. Given the intent of the RFA is to focus on understanding the effect of digital solutions on health systems performance, a research agenda which focuses on a health element, e.g. family planning reduces the scope of the intended research.