Our goal is to improve healthcare in Pacific Islands through the implementation of Tamanu, our free, open-source, patient-level electronic medical record (EMR) built for the uniquely remote settings across the region, with an offline-first, sync-enabled design across both desktop and mobile. Beyond Essential Systems (BES) is well placed to achieve this goal, as we have in-depth, contextually appropriate experience in delivering successful, transformative digital projects in ten countries across the Asia Pacific Region, with partners including the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, WHO, UNFPA and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Digital Square investment will contribute to the continued development of the Tamanu software, improving shelf readiness and reducing the cost of individual deployments. Optimisations will include development of quality assurance and testing frameworks, contribution to the OpenHIE Testing Framework, further documentation of our open-source code repository and further investment into aligning of Tamanu with the OpenHIE architecture. Ideally, this would include mentoring and non-financial support.
As an EMR, the primary goal of Tamanu is to support clinical workflows in low-middle income countries to improve patient care and outcomes, specifically in the Pacific setting. The system must meet the technical and operational challenges that are faced in these settings, whilst aligning with principles of OpenHIE.
Tamanu has been developed by the same software team that developed Tupaia, mSupply and mSupply Mobile, working in collaboration with Sustainable Solutions and designed specifically for the Pacific context.
Tupaia demonstrates the success that has been achieved by BES. It is a data aggregation, analysis and visualisation platform designed to provide a comprehensive map of health systems in the Pacific region. Combining data from DHIS2, mSupply and other sources in real-time, it is used for health supply chain strengthening, disease surveillance, disaster response and strengthening service provision. Tupaia is currently in 10 countries (including 9 in the Pacific) and growing.
Required: Aligning Tamanu with OpenHIE architecture
This would entail non-financial support for our software development team, ideally through regular remote mentorship sessions and the development of a highly detailed interoperability roadmap.
Prime Organisation: Beyond Essential Systems (BES)
BES is an Australian eHealth company that has managed large projects across the Asia Pacific region. Our software solutions are Tamanu and Tupaia (a multi-award winning open-source health data aggregation and visualisation platform implemented in 10 countries across the Asia Pacific Region). We additionally have extensive experience implementing DHIS2 and mSupply. Development of Tamanu has been led by BES and we will continue to be the primary developer of this software.
BES’ principals all have over 10 years’ experience working with health systems in the Pacific and the company has specialists in clinical services, software development, health supply chains, project accounting and geospatial epidemiology.
Supporting Organization: Sustainable Solutions
Sustainable Solutions is a New Zealand based company with offices in Auckland and in Kathmandu, Nepal. First developed nearly 20 years ago, their mSupply software is used in over 30 countries worldwide, including Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Myanmar, Timor-Leste and most PICs. mSupply provides comprehensive end-to-end logistics management, with a procurement module, comprehensive warehousing and distribution functionality, customizable reporting, budgeting tools, a hospital dispensing module and a new mobile version (mSupply Mobile), which has recently been released open-source. They currently partner with a range of government donors, private enterprise and multilateral agencies, including DFID (UK), USAID, The Clinton Health Access Initiative, UNDP and CAIPA.
Proposed Project Team
Erin Nunan: Project Lead
Erin Nunan is a health systems specialist and BES Director who has worked in development for 13 years across the Pacific, Asia and Africa. Erin spent four years living and working in Solomon Islands and has worked in Swaziland, Timor-Leste and extensively in the Pacific. A pharmacist, Erin also has a Juris Doctor from the University of New England.
Edwin Monk-Fromont: Lead Software Developer and Data Specialist
Edwin Monk-Fromont is a full stack software developer who has led the development for Tamanu. He also wrote the software for both mSupply Mobile (>200 implementations across 9 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific) and Tupaia MediTrak. He has provided in-country consulting and training in Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Nepal and Tonga. Edwin is proficient in Java, C++, JavaScript (React, React Native, NodeJS), SQL and others. He also specializes in systems integration.
Kurt Johnson: Software Developer
Kurt Johnson is a Technical Project Manager. His experience includes developing an MS1 data integration project in Kiribati, leading the software component for the WISH waterborne disease predictive modelling project in Fiji as well as leading work for the UNFPA, WHO and Burnet Institute.
Seeking Collaboration from OpenHIE
A mentor from OpenHIE to provide support on OpenHIE architecture. Working alongside this mentor, we will conduct a system analysis of Tamanu, and put together the technical documents required to guide us on our transition towards alignment with OpenHIE architecture. Additionally, we will use this mentorship to build up a series of test suites based on the principles behind the OpenHIE Testing Framework.
See attachments for DHA registration.
Nauru, Solomon Islands, Samoa
Comments
Deliverable timeline
Hi Megan,
Thank you for submitting a concept note for Notice E0. Could you please add more of an anticipated timeline to meet deliverables? Final concept notes are due May 22 at 5pm EDT.
Thanks,
Caitlin
Hi Megan
Hi Megan
Thanks for the note, the OpenHIE is an open community and we'd encourage you to engage with them even now. The SILA (http://sil-asia.org/) may be a good local (timezone) resouce to help regardless. It would be good if you could call out some specific deliverables (FHIR Compliance etc) that you'd hope that this award would support.
Schedule section missing
Hi Megan,
Please add a schedule section to your applicaiton, per the technical application template.
Thank you,
Caitlin