Request for Application #2019-016

openIMIS Modularization, Nepali Functionality, and Community Development

Improving the modularity of openIMIS to the Nepali healthcare context for a successful UHC

Two-sentence overview: 

The primary goal of this project is to mitigate the issues of the rudimentary legacy back-end coding of the open IMIS platform to more sustainable open source languages and frameworks. The additional goal will be to enhance interoperability between existing HIMS frameworks in the country context of Nepal. management4health (m4h) and HISP South Africa (SA) will provide counterbalancing resources for the business processes, schematic concepts, administrative modelling, financial expertise and technical whereabouts for the successful completion of the key objectives of the various components of this project. The team has tremendous experience in developing the Social Health Insurance scheme, Digital Health Systems, Master Plan Development and DHIS2 implementation through its various international projects. Additionally, the team has immense technical experience in developing interoperable HIT products and has demonstrated success in achieving country and subnational harmonization through the establishment and maintenance of key databases such as National Data Dictionaries, minimum indicator data sets, routine information and surveillance systems.

Executive summary: 

Health Insurance is a key component of the Universal Health Coverage goal, because UHC is a complex ecosystem of multiple macro and micro components. So, for a successful road map to UHC, a successful social health insurance will form a key building block. Interoperable, open-sourced platforms will ensure that the process of universal health insurance adoption, implementation and sustainability are progressive and effective. The key objective of this project is to utilize the power of open source technologies to ensure equitable access and benefits to the healthcare system of Nepal.


The resources allocated for this project will be effectively utilized for the purpose of developing interoperable modules in the open IMIS with Nepal specific detailing. Additionally, the consortium understands that key in the sustainability of this project will be the monitoring, evaluation, iteration, training and future technical support and the resources will be allocated accordingly.

The project’s key goals will be to ensure that the technical expertise of the team is used to create an interoperable and highly modular system, and to ensure that the level of interoperability will be good enough to use this flexible and modular framework not only to the requirements of Nepal, but also to other countries with minimal customization. Also, to improve iteration and sustainability, the framework will be developed with the help of agile open source community of openIMIS.

Our team will base this project on these key fundamental principles:
1. Core concepts of developing the existing framework and migrating to complete open source tools and applications,
2. Create an adequate level of interoperability among various HMIS using international open and standards-based approaches based on a Health Information Exchange (HIE) with a mediation layer like OpenHIM, interoperability adapters like HL&’s FHIR, and consuming standardized profiles such as those of Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE)
3. Introduce features of sustainability like continuous iteration of the modules, training and support,
4. Continue to develop a fully modular structure which can be customized to other country needs and demands

Based on these solid backbones of the core project principles, the project can be successfully delivered through the following phases.
Phase 1: Leadership, coordination and assessment, including the development of a consensus Business Requirements Specification (BRS) document that will guide the development life cycle
Phase 2: Priority-setting and planning
Phase 3: Technical development of the modules and use of open source tools
Phase 4: Implementation and monitoring
Phase 5: Continuous evaluation, support and training.
The consortium will work through these 5 phases and will the deliver the key demands and the requirements of this project and will also ensure that the users are effectively trained for sustained use in the healthcare set ups of Nepal.

 

Consortium Team: 

management4health GmbH (m4h) is a global consulting firm based in Frankfurt, Germany, with inhouse expertise working in close collaboration with an extensive global network of specialized experts to design, implement, monitor and evaluate healthcare projects and programs. It’s scope of services encompasses Health Infrastructure, Health Services, Health Systems, and Health Information and Research. m4h has been able to establish a strong track-record in the Nepalese health sector through its various projects like ‘supporting the DoHS for maintenance’ and ‘implementing the Improvement of Maternal and Child Care in Remote Areas (IMCCR)’.

HISP-SA (Health Information Systems Program South Africa) is a Non-Profit Company (NPC) that specializes in the development and maintenance of health information systems. HISP SA has
partnered with local organizations, universities, and ministries of health in Namibia, Botswana, Nigeria, Southern Sudan, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Liberia, Uganda, DRC (in French) and in South East Asia (India and Myanmar), and through these partnerships have developed local teams of health information practitioners.HISP SA has demonstrated success in achieving country and subnational harmonization through the establishment and maintenance of key databases such as National Data Dictionaries, minimum indicator data sets, routine information and surveillance systems. 

Workstream: 
Modular Migration of Core openIMIS
Nepal Feature Requests
Community Support
WHO Classification: 
Data interchange interoperability and accessibility
Final Technical Application: 
Application Tags: 
interoperability
community engagement
data visualization
universal health coveage
e-health
Application Status: 
Incomplete

Comments

Your proposal descirbes a valid project management framework. In you final application kindly list precise deliverables to the openIMIS code-base and or community tools that you want to contribute. Best would be a list of workpackes, one for each product.