News: Digital Health

South Sudan has experienced numerous disease outbreaks before and after its independence in 2011, which have ranged from mild to severe. The South Sudan Ministry of Health continues to face several challenges managing and providing timely responses to emerging health threats. An underlying reason for this is the country’s shortage of health workers at the national and subnational levels. This is compounded by an untrained health workforce and a...

We know that digital resources contribute to better quality, accessibility, and sustainability of health services and health outcomes. They’re a cornerstone of high-quality health care. In Uganda, IntraHealth International’s Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services in Eastern Uganda (RHITES-E) Activity fosters an environment that allows for new digital tools and innovations across the eastern region of the country. Over the past two years...

For ten years, IntraHealth International’s Strengthening National Capacity for Integrated HIV/AIDS Health Data Collection, Use, and Dissemination in Support of Evidence Based Response project in South Sudan has helped transform the Ministry of Health’s data, policies, surveillance, reporting, and strategic plans. The results: a better-equipped health workforce and stronger health systems for South Sudan. IntraHealth has been working in South...

To transform a population's health—including reducing costs and improving equity and outcomes—countries need actionable data. This means combining diverse data sources into coherent analytical tools. A common pain point for many of the governments and organizations we partner with at IntraHealth International is managing the ever-changing metadata about facilities, workforce status, the care provided, and supply chains. As the number of data...

Three students from the IntraHealth-UNC Fellows Program completed their fellowships with IntraHealth International last month, marking the thirteenth year of the partnership between IntraHealth and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). This year’s fellows, who came from UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC School of Nursing, spent the summer working side-by-side with global health professionals at IntraHealth...

During 2021, the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, IntraHealth International reached 317,443 health workers in 42 countries, helping to make high-quality health care available to more people around the world. Our programs led to: $33,399,555 in financial aid provided for student health workers through IntraHealth programs 2,524,424 COVID-19 vaccines distributed through IntraHealth programs 223,677 men provided with voluntary medical male...

US funding for global health security has surged in the last few years, and now Congress has just approved a $510 million increase for fiscal year 2022, nearly doubling current funding. President Biden is proposing even greater increases for fiscal year 2023 in his new budget proposal, including a multilateral fund for global health security and pandemic preparedness. The US has already pledged $250 million to this proposed fund, which has a goal...

When Ebola spread through Liberia in August 2014, health workers needed information—and they needed it fast. We’ve seen exactly the same need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Back in 2014, IntraHealth International and UNICEF created mHero—a two-way, mobile phone-based communication system that connects ministries of health and frontline health workers—to support health-sector communication in Liberia during the Ebola outbreak. The original version...

As part of Kenya’s overarching efforts to build and strengthen its health workforce, the country has provided much-needed financial aid to train more than 40,000 aspiring health workers in the past five years. This is just one way the country is addressing its shortage of health workers and using strategic data to address HIV, COVID-19, and other urgent health challenges. Since 2016, IntraHealth International’s USAID-funded Human Resources for...

I work in South Sudan for IntraHealth International. A lot of people might not realize why collecting and using data efficiently are so important for health services here. But the data we collect inform everything we do, from figuring out how many people need antiretroviral treatment and how many health workers are needed at a specific health facility to helping the government and other funders determine how much to spend on public health...