Notice E0 Phase 1 Shelf Readiness

Notice E for promoting investments in digital health global goods

Under Notice E0, Digital Square is accepting applications from existing open source digital health software tools as well as any existing approved Digital Square global goods, to improve their commoditization as stand-alone, interoperable, open-source software products and become “shelf ready” (see Appendix A: Shelf Readiness).  

Technologies and software being proposed in the applications must meet the following minimum requirements to be seen as a global good: 

  • Be an existing software that has been deployed in three or more low-resource contexts. 

  • Be a global public good. Software tools will be considered a global public good if either: 

  • The source code is made available under an Open Source Initiative–approved software license; or 

  • The software is freely accessible and adheres to the Open Definition for access to data. 

  • Software has been applied to a health domain to manage, analyze, or transmit health-related data. 

  • Content may be considered a global good if it is a resource, toolkit, or data standard that is available under an open license and that is used to improve or analyze health data management processes. 

Applications must align their solutions to be part of the Instant OpenHIE project and initiative to ensure harmonization and leveraging of work undertaken in that project. 

Applicants are required to segment the applications into work packages modelled around the identified aspects of “Shelf Readiness.” Care must be given to clearly indicate the gaps, activities and expected outputs/deliverables that the requested funding will go towards and how these would advance the software towards shelf readiness. Applicants should ensure that the work packages are self-contained and not overly reliant on another. If there is a reliance this must be clearly called out and justified. 

Examples of investments that will be made available through this call for applications include (but are not limited to): 

  • Aligning a solution to leverage key metadata / registry interoperability workflows. 

  • Aligning technologies to the DevOps guidelines and containerization deployment that is illustrated through use within the Instant OpenHIE project. 

  • Improvement for quality assurance and testing to improve data captured in the software tool. 

  • Development of quality assurance and testing frameworks and strategies for interoperability workflows and contribution to the OpenHIE Testing Framework. 

  • Enhancements of installation functionality to better support implementers as well as focused sets of key documentation updates and deployment and implementation strategies. 

  • Aligning of technologies to be better framed within the OpenHIE architecture and supporting the required workflows as per the OpenHIE architectural specification (as well as the associated test cases). 

The following will be considered out-of-scope, and therefore make the concept note ineligible for funding: 

  • Investments in country implementations or adaptations intended for country-specific deployments. 

  • Investments that are not applicable outside of a single health program area. 

  • Investments in new functionality that are not justified in making the tool a shelf-ready solution. 

 

Click here to access RFA #2020-018: Notice E0 "Phase 1 Shelf Readiness"

 

Watch this Notice D video tutorial on how to create an account and upload a concept note

  • April 20 - May 8: Concept note development

    Digital Square issues a call for applications, and applicants upload concept notes to Digital Square's public-facing open application platform. In the first few weeks, as outlined by the solicitation, applicants will submit concept notes.  

    Applicants must use the concept note template

  • May 11 - May 22 2020: Concept note review

    In the few weeks following the concept note submission deadline, other applicants and/or other stakeholders in the community may provide feedback, comments, and suggestions, as well as identify potential areas for collaboration. 

  • May 25 - June 5 2020: Digital Square review of concept notes

    Following the concept note review, Digital Square assesses concept notes to ensure alignment with the initiative vision and funding objectives identified in the Notice. Digital Square eliminates concept notes that are not strategically aligned with the above. 

    Digital Square identifies a set of short-listed concept notes based on the Notice criteria and emails applicants who are eligible to advance to the application phase. 

  • June 8 - June 19 2020: Preliminary technical application co-creation

    Using feedback received in the Concept Note Phase, applicants will begin preliminary application development. 

    Applicants must use the technical application template and post an application iteration on the open application platform in the first 2 weeks. 

    At the conclusion of this step, Digital Square will close the ability to upload new content to open application platform

  • June 22 - July 3: Preliminary technical application comment period

    During this time, other applicants and other stakeholders in the community should provide feedback, comments, and suggestions. 

  • July 6-July 24: Application finalization

    Using feedback during the preliminary technical application comment period, applicants revise the technical application, develop a budget and budget narrative, and submit these to the Digital Square open application platform. Applicants must use the provided technical application, budget, and budget narrative templates

    The budget and budget narrative are not shared publicly on the platform. Commenters see only the high-level summary budget provided in the technical application

  • July 27-August 14: Peer Review Committee (PRC) review

    Digital Square groups applications for PRC scoring and technical feedback. Three PRC members will review each application. 

    The PRC reviews applications according to the Prioritization Framework, notice scope of work technical requirements and evaluates applications as green-, amber-, or red-lit per the PRC Membership Policy. Green-lit applications are recommended for funding immediately; amber-lit applications are recommended for future funding or further exploration; red-lit applications do not fully meet the selection standards/criteria. 

    The PRC sees only the high-level summary budget. Proprietary information including salaries, indirect rates, or other factors are not shared with anyone outside of the funder and Digital Square. 

  • August 17-28: Digital Square recommendation

    Digital Square compiles the evaluation provided by the PRC by clustering the applications according to the Prioritization Framework for Governing Board Investment Review Committee (IRC) review. 

    Digital Square creates an investment package recommendation of the highly scored applications for the Governing Board Investment Review Committee based on the funding-round objectives, donor priorities, and Digital Square vision. 

  • Investment Review Committee (IRC) review (Per schedule)

    Digital Square presents the applications, high-level budget summary, PRC feedback within the Prioritization Framework, and Digital Square recommendation to the IRC

    The IRC evaluates whether to approve the investment packages and reserves the right to modify the recommendation at their discretion. 

  • November 2020: Award Phase

    Digital Square shares the investment decisions approved by the IRC with applicants. Upon applicant request, PRC feedback shall be shared with applicant. 

    Digital Square notifies the Governing Board of the IRC evaluation and investment decision. This step will occur during routine Governing Board communications. 

    Investment decisions are contingent on funder approval. 

Applications (16 total)

Displaying 6 - 10

Improving Shelf-Readiness by Sharing Patient Data Across Systems: OpenMRS, MobileWACh, an SHR, and OpenHIE

Two-sentence overview: 

Both OpenMRS and Mobile WACh are critical components in providing care to patients, and collect data at different points in the healthcare system that should be shared with each other through a Shared Health Record (SHR) to improve decision making and patient outcomes. This project aims to 1) build FHIR support and OpenHIM mediators to send and receive data from both OpenMRS and Mobile WACh with the SHR, 2) test the resulting code in the Instant OpenHIE project, and 3) disseminate code and OpenHIE implementation guides for the broader global goods community.

Application Status: 
Not Approved

Improving the Automated Testing, Interoperability, and Privacy of the Open Smart Register Platform (OpenSRP)

Two-sentence overview: 

The goal of this project is to improve the automated testing, interoperability, and privacy of the Open Smart Register Platform (OpenSRP) as a point-of-service application in alignment with the OpenHIE architecture. We propose a series of individual work packages that will improve test automation, support mobile Care Services Discovery (mCSD), and mask personally identifiable information.

Application Status: 
Approved - partially funded

Managing the 21st Century Health Workforce: Shelf-Ready iHRIS 5 Global Digital Health Good

Two-sentence overview: 

iHRIS is the premier global digital health good for ministries of health (MOHs) to manage their health workforce. Digital Square can help promote iHRIS 5 upgrades in the 20 countries that have previous versions of iHRIS, and stimulate new countries to adopt iHRIS, with shelf-ready investments in:

  • A technology demonstration that shows greater product information and documentation;  
  • A dashboard integration that enhances the Instant OpenHIE reference design; and
  • Automated testing that verifies quality assurance of iHRIS and its components.
Application Status: 
Not Approved

OpenBoxes Shelf Readiness Project

Two-sentence overview: 

OpenBoxes is an open source logistics management information system designed to meet the supply-chain management demands of public health systems. The system is used to manage supplies and medications for healthcare facilities and disaster relief efforts. A major gap identified in the shelf-readiness of OpenBoxes is user-friendly deployment and configuration of the software. Partners In Health (PIH) proposes to leverage its decade of experience with OpenBoxes implementation, development, and project management to lead the OpenBoxes Shelf Readiness Project. Our goal is to create a user-friendly installation and setup package that is available online and makes implementation independently manageable by a non-technical audience so that the software is more easily deployable by users who need it. 

Application Status: 
Approved - fully funded

OpenFn as a FOSS microservice: click-to-configure, Instant OpenHIE compatible, supported by OpenFn.org

Two-sentence overview: 

By simplifying setup and expanding access to our open-source tools and deployment strategies, Open Function Group (“OFG”)  will drastically expand upon the reach and impact of our sector-leading, open-core, integration platform as a service solution (OpenFn). Using OpenFn, OFG has delivered dozens of at-scale, real-time, integration, interoperability and automation solutions for global public health organizations over the last 6 years, and has developed the required expertise and market position to not only provide robust, enterprise grade, shelf-ready open-source software, but to provide the shelf itself, delivering that software to the end users that need it most through a hosted web UI.

Application Status: 
Approved - partially funded

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