Spotlight: eHA Internships

Yaya Jaiteh was eHA’s dynamic Product Marketing Intern in the Spring of 2017.

When deciding to apply for this internship, Yaya hoped to learn more about public health. “I always saw strengthening of the health sector as one of the most effective approaches in development work, Yaya explains. “I was also starting to develop an interest in software development and health tech solutions during a project I was working on prior to the internship. At eHA, I had all that in one internship while working with a truly international team”.

Yaya had the pleasure of being based in eHA’s German office and traveling to eHA’s Sierra Leone office. He also played a significant role in marketing two major eHA projects - Electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (eIDSR) and Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) during the course of his internship. While in Sierra Leone, Yaya was supervised by Hawa Kombian, Executive Projects Manager. 

“I really learned a lot during this internship. This makes it hard to sum up the lessons I learned during a period as short as just two months. To mention some key aspects, I would say that working within a team that is international and diverse was an exciting experience”.

Yaya has been an amazing intern with eHA. We wish him the absolute best in his future endeavors! Check out our job board and join our team today. 

Sierra Leone’s 117 Call Center Transitions Into A Sustainable Public Health Mechanism

By Hawa Kombian

June 22nd, 2017 marked the official celebration of the 117 Call Center’s transition into a sustainable public health mechanism for Sierra Leone. This successful transfer of ownership has been highlighted as an instrumental step towards strengthening the ability of Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health & Sanitation (MoHS) to efficiently identify and respond to public health emergencies and other challenges.

Officials from the MoHS, UK Aid, eHealth Africa (eHA), and the United State’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gathered to mark this momentous occasion. The event was held at the Public Health National Emergency Operations Centre (PHNEOC) in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The 117 is a MoHS initiative set up in 2012 as part of a wider support system to improve maternal and child health. In 2014 it was scaled-up in response to the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak - to serve as a tool to document, track and provide follow-up on suspected EVD cases and deaths. Funded through the Government of the United Kingdom’s  £13.7 million aid package to the Ebola Response Consortium, eHA provided technical and operational support to expand the 117 to every district in Sierra Leone. eHA developed a custom software to enable near real-time documentation of call details and the dispatching of the 117 calls to District Emergency Response Centers. This system also provided call-back services to deliver updates on the dispatching of health workers to original callers. 

Speakers (left to right): A CDC Representative, the Deputy Minister from the MoHS, the British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer from the MoHS, the Head of PHNEOC, and eHA’s Deputy Country Director of Sierra Leone. Photo: Hawa Kombian, eHA

Speakers at the event included eHA’s Deputy Country Director in Sierra Leone, the Deputy Minister of Health from the MoHS, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer from the MoHS, the British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, and several CDC representatives. 

“117 has been a real effort and success in partnership between the Ministry of Health [and Sanitation], the UK Government, eHA, and other partners on the ground. eHA will continue to be a willing and able partner with the Ministry to improve health outcomes in Sierra Leone” - Dayo Spencer-Walters, eHA's Deputy Country Director, Sierra Leone.

The event concluded with a ceremonious ribbon cutting performed by the British High Commissioner and the MoHS’s Deputy Minister of Health, followed by a tour of the new call center space in the PHNEOC facility.

The British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone and the Deputy Minister of Health from the MoHS complete the official ribbon-cutting ceremony. Photo: Hawa Kombian, eHA

At the height of the EVD crisis, the 117 received an average of 6,000 alerts of suspicious deaths and sickness per month. Over 300 dispatchers and operators were trained to utilize the eHA software solution and provide weekly updates to the MoHS and partners. This information was invaluable in the management of the outbreak, as it informed near real-time response efforts. With continued funding from UK Aid’s Resilient Zero program, the 117 call center currently receives around 2,000 alerts per month to its decentralized data managers who are deployed across all 13 districts in Sierra Leone. The 117 is a key element in strengthening the public health surveillance system, including tracking maternal deaths, child deaths, and suspicious infectious disease cases.

With a desire to maintain a strong disease surveillance system that can prevent and respond to public health threats, the MoHS will exercise renewed leadership over the technical and operational aspects of the 117. In light of this, the CDC Foundation has committed to short-term funding support for the project.

The public is encouraged to continue to place calls and send public health alerts to the 117 in order to report all deaths and suspicious illnesses in their respective communities. Social mobilization activities will continue in national efforts to enhance disease prevention, management, and the overall health sector development in Sierra Leone. eHA remains committed to achieving its mission by improving preparedness for potential public health emergencies across underserved communities in West Africa. To find out more about the work that eHA does, kindly subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.

Electronic Immunization Registry and Tracking System in Sierra Leone

Written By Hawa Kombian

In November 2016 we announced the launch of a Child Immunization Initiative in Sierra Leone - an Electronic Vaccination Record and Tracking Project, also known as VaxTrac. The goal of this initiative was to implement an electronic registry for children’s immunizations in order to provide timely and quality data for decision making.

The Immunization Dashboard shows the client's immunization history and upcoming immunization dates. Photo credit: Bryan Gastonguay

Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), eHealth Africa (eHA) implemented the project in collaboration with VaxTrac, Africell, and the Child Health Division at the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS). The pilot phase ran from November 2016 to June 2017.

The VaxTrac project has been a thriving success in the Western Area Urban District of Freetown. eHA has led the training of over 110 MoHS health officials and workers from 50 health facilities to conduct electronic registration for children receiving vaccinations via the VaxTrac app. The patient profiles are generated and linked using biometric indicators (i.e. fingerprint scans) from their caregivers or via a QR code sticker on their traditional vaccination cards. Each child’s demographic and vaccination details (i.e. type of vaccine and date of administration) are collected via the VaxTrac mobile app and synced to the VaxTrac monitor analysis system, which the MoHS can access.

“VaxTrac has helped us give accurate return dates [for immunization follow-up] to our patients. ”

— Trained, Freetown Health Care Worker (HCW)

In addition to storing immunization information in a secure and accessible platform, VaxTrac includes features which support the health system proactively addressing child immunizations. The system has a “call-back” feature which tracks follow-up vaccination timelines and calls caregivers with reminder messages encouraging them to bring children back in for their next round of immunization. This friendly and automated reminder helps ensure that vaccine coverage is as high as possible. It further provides a simple and reliable mechanism for healthcare workers to conduct routine follow-ups.

Ultimately, the MoHS will be able to utilize compiled VaxTrac data to make more strategic and informed vaccination decisions via the VaxTrac monitor dashboard which runs data analysis and produces reports.

Following the success of the pilot where over 20,000 patients were registered, the completed end-of-pilot evaluation will provide information on necessary software upgrades to ensure that the app remains user-friendly and is streamlined for data collection and analysis. The project partners plan to expand VaxTrac to the 20 remaining health facilities for 100% coverage within the Western Urban Area District. This activity will include greater engagement of MoHS staff in the process of training health care workers to use the VaxTrac app, monitoring its usage and effectiveness throughout health facilities, and analyzing the data collected for a clearer understanding of immunization trends across the district.

eHA establishes new standards in health delivery through the integration of information, technology, and operations. This supports our mission to improve the quality of healthcare for underserved populations across Africa. To join our team or find out more about the work we do, kindly visit our website.

eHealth Africa Releases 2016 Annual Impact Report

Written by Elizabeth Shelley

eHealth Africa’s (eHA) 2016 Impact Report illustrates the multifaceted ways in which eHA partners with Ministries of Health (MOH) to improve healthcare for underserved populations across West Africa. Through the integration of information, technology, and logistics, eHA has been working to build stronger health systems that respond to local needs throughout the region since 2009.

As a result of eHA’s work in 2016:

• 958,030 women and children received free medicines in Northern Nigeria;
• Over 30,000 people benefited from an Integrated Community Health pilot in Guinea; and
• Over 13 million life-saving vaccines were delivered to remote health facilities;

Following our unprecedented expansion into West African countries in response to the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak, eHA spent much of 2016 establishing an integrated approach to improving health services region-wide. eHA has consolidated its support across five focus areas: Health Delivery Systems; Public Health Emergency Management Systems, Disease Surveillance Systems, Laboratory and Diagnostic Systems, and Nutrition & Food Security.

Within each of these focus areas, eHA is working to provide innovative technological solutions using data-driven metrics for success, while simultaneously building local capacity to use and maintain these systems. For example, over the course of 2016, eHA leveraged having the largest geographic information system (GIS) team in West Africa to extend its support to the Nigerian government in identifying hard-to-reach communities which are chronically omitted from health service deliveries. eHA is also tracking deliveries of vaccines and other medical supplies to these regions using our own geospatial technology.

These GIS tools are also enhancing the effectiveness of vaccine delivery campaigns to ensure that no households, and thus no children, are missed. As a result:

• Over 1,000 settlements in remote areas were identified and mapped;
• 13.3 million antigens were delivered to health facilities in these regions; and
• Northern Nigeria’s Borno state experienced a 17% increase in coverage by vaccination teams between October and December 2016.

eHA’s strategic model reflects a deep commitment to an integrated approach in global health and development work. Our experience working as an implementer and a leader in this regard allows us to provide value, responsiveness, and scale in our work. We look to continue providing technological solutions that respond to local needs and provide underserved communities with tools to lead healthier lives.

The 2016 Annual Impact Report is now available online. If you are interested in monthly updates on eHA’s work, please sign up for our newsletter.

Meningitis outbreak response: How a mobile laboratory helps save lives

This article originally appeared on Africa Health and was written by Natalya Nepomnyashcha, Communications and Operations Coordinator, eHealth Africa.

To tackle the recent outbreak of Meningitis in Nigeria, eHealth Africa (eHA), a Nigeria based social enterprise, constructed a mobile biosafety level 1 laboratory to be able to test samples in the immediate vicinity of the suspected cases. The lab was constructed in Sokoto State, which experienced a particularly high number of suspected cases. If needed, the lab can be easily transported to other States. Constructed within just 23 days, the lab is housed in a thermal insulated 40 foot shipping container.

The lab contains medical diagnostic equipment, an incubator, a centrifuge, a water distiller, an autoclave, and tools for electronic data capture. Power, water, and internet connectivity were installed to enable full lab functionality. All surfaces are chemical- and water-resistant.

To find out more, see July edition of Africa Health please.