GDHF provides an opportunity for innovators, ministries of health, donors, implementers, and tech developers to come together to improve health and contribute to better quality, accessibility and sustainability of health services and health outcomes, particularly for underserved populations in low resource environments.
At PATH, we are members of the Global Digital Health Network, which hosts GDHF alongside TechChange. We are also longtime sponsors of GDHF and this year, we will sponsor a breakfast session.
Our work in digital health and data crosscuts our organization from working with countries on developing and implementing enterprise architecture, to connected diagnostics, supply chains and immunization data. Several of our programs, projects, and teams will attend and present at this year's GDHF, showcasing the breadth of our work and impact in sessions including poster presentations, lightning talks, interactive workshops, and panel presentations.
We look forward to sharing our work and seeing you online or in person in Washington D.C.
- Monday, December 4th
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Harmonizing Community Health Worker Data: Towards a Universal eCHIS Blueprint
Interactive workshop
1:30-2:30pm ET
- Facilitators: Hassan Mtenga, Regional Deputy Director Africa, PATH
The need for a common community health worker (CHW) application that allows for data entry across health verticals has been a challenge for many years. When CHWs are required to enter duplicate information into multiple tablets, systems, and tools, quality of care and time with patients decrease or input is rushed, leading to missing or incomplete data.
To address this need, ministries of health are increasingly focused on alignment around an integrated mobile tool for CHWs, often referred to as an electronic community health information system (eCHIS).
From Knowledge to Application: Evaluating the Influence of Training on Digital Health Leaders
Pre-formed panel
1:30-2:30pm ET
Session panelists:
- Ariel Frankel, Director of Public Health, TechChange
- Vivian Korir, Program Manager, PATH
- Merrick Schaefer, Senior Digital Health Advisor, USAID
- Jai Ganesh Udayasankaran, Executive Director, Asia EHealth Information Network (AeHIN)
- Lauren Wall, Deputy Director Capacity Strengthening, PATH
This panel will look at three successful, interlinked efforts which have trained over 650 people in the last three years. It will focus on identifying what has driven the impact of these efforts, what has allowed them to scale and reach that impact across different audiences, and how those learnings can apply to GDHF participants’ digital health capacity strengthening efforts.
Accelerating Digital Health Transformation in the DRC Through a Collaborative Architecture Approach
Individual presentation
1:30-2:45pm ET
Facilitators:
- Jean Thierry KALOMBO, Director ANICNS (DRC MOH)
- Hamadounn Ben Aya, ACMT, Digital for Africa
- Fatou Fall, Regional Director Digital Square at PATH
Global Goods Paradox
Pre-formed panel
2:45-3:45pm ET
Session Panelists:
- Alain Labrique, Director, Department of Digital Health and Innovation, World Health Organization
- Taylor Downs, Founder, Head of Products, OpenFn
- Tessa Lennemann, Digital Health, GIZ
- Mridul Chowdhury, Cheif Executive Officer, MPower Social Enterprises Limited
Digital health has reached an important inflection point where countries are now beginning to adopt and implement digital solutions at national scale. As a result, investments made in digital health are largely shifting towards implementation funding and away from product funding. To help achieve scale, countries often seek to implement digital global goods because they are proven and are promoted by donors from whom they receive investments. The open source nature of global goods is also appealing as it means the country can avoid licensing costs and ideally can be maintained and supported in the country by local partners which helps promote local ownership and sustainability.
Live Demo: Digital Square’s Interactive Global Goods Guidebook
Solutions Demonstration
5:30-7:00pm ET (during “Appy Hour”)
Session panelists:
- Alena Owen, Program Officer, Digital Square
- Linda Taylor, Technical Program Manager, Digital Square
- Tuesday, December 5th
-
Operationalizing SMART Guidelines - Showcasing Latest Activities, Experience and Guidance from WHO's SMART Guidelines Work
3:00-4:00am ET
Virtual
Session panelists:
- Fred Hersch, Product Manager, Google
- Akshita Palliwal, Consultant, WHO
- Jose Costa Teixeira, Interoperability Advisor, PATH
- Constantin Corman, Consultant, WHO
The session will cover a showcase of activities, experience, and guidance as part of the SMART Guidelines initiative that will aid operationalization and easier adoption of SMART Guidelines for implementors.
The SMART Guidelines community met in early 2023 and gave itself a target of showcasing a working SMART Guideline from L1-L4 end to end. Measles Immunization and Measles Case investigation were chosen as use cases and a hackathon in Kigali has tried this curriculum of adoption with 6 countries in the AFRO region.
Exploring Business Models and Financial Strategies for Local Implementing Partners of Digital Public Goods: A Case Study of Guild Digital Solutions and Medic’s Community Health Toolkit (CHT)
3:00-4:00am ET
Virtual
Session panelists:
- Agnes Kabalyanga, Managing Director, Guild Digital Solutions
- Brian Ssennoga, Team Leader, Guild Digital Solutions Ltd
Amid the dynamic landscape of digital health technologies, this session offers an in–depth exploration of innovative business models and financial strategies for implementing digital public goods. Our intervention showcases how Guild Digital Solutions Ltd., a local Ugandan software firm, successfully adapted the Community Health Toolkit (CHT) as a transformative digital solution. (Note: Guild Digital is a PATH grantee through the Digital Health Ecosystem project in partnership with Medic)
Local Private Sector Engagement for Global Goods
Poster presentation
9:00-10:00am ET
- Lauren Wall, Deputy Director Capacity Strengthening, Digital Square/PATH
- Maya Rivera, Senior Program Associate, PATH
- Caitlin Bowman, Program Officer, PATH
- Brian Kangethe, Senior MEL Officer, PATH
- Jenny Shannon, MEL Officer, PATH
Empathy and the end user: Best practices for human centered design approaches from two PATH project experiences in Zambia
Presentation
12:00-1:00pm ET
Joseph Kayaya, Lead Product Manager, Living Labs, PATH
Path to Digitization: A story of digital health applications and community health worker aspirations
Presentation
12:00-1:00pm ET
Kendi Mburu, Project Manager, PATH
Forging Trust in Digital Health Transformation: Data Governance, Privacy and Security at the Core of Healthcare Systems
Pre-formed panel
4:15-5:00pm ET
Session panelists:
- Steven Wanyee, Director Digital Health, IntelliSOFT Consulting Ltd
- Natschja Ratanaprayul, Consultant, World Health Organization (WHO)
- Xenophone Santas, Associate Director for Informatics and Information Resources, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Nino Hares, Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Expert, PATH
The panel session will feature organizations which develop global guidelines and standards on cybersecurity, those implementing digital health interventions, and those funding digital transformation initiatives in countries around the world.
Crossing the Digital Divide: Gender-Inclusive Design for Digital Health
Interactive workshop
4:15-5:00pm ET
Facilitators:
- Jaslyn Reader, Advisor, GIZ
- Julia Niklewski, Digital Health Advisor, Deutsche Gesellschaft Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
- Rhonwyn Cornell, Program Manager: Capacity Strengthening, Digital Square/PATH
- Lauren Wall, Deputy Director of Capacity Strengthening, PATH
This immersive 60–minute workshop equips participants with practical skills and tools in integrating gender inclusivity into the very fabric of digital health intervention design. It will be delivered through a life– sized board game, where participants must roll the dice to make it across the perilous digital divide. Along the way, their game play will be led by facilitators with experience in gender–inclusive design strategies and feminist pedagogies.
- Wednesday, December 6th
-
Digital Square & PATH Sponsorship Breakfast
Breakfast
8:00-9:00am ET
Strengthening the effectiveness of COVID-19 and routine vaccination in Mali
Poster presentation
9:00-10:00am ET
Presenters:
- Docteur BERTHE Ouassa, Responsible SIS, Mali MOH
- Oury Ba, Technical Advisor Immunization data and Systems Digital Square/PATH
- Mamadou Mballo DIALLO, Senior Regional MEL Officer Digital Square/PATH
A Local Hosting Process including Security to Support Community Health Digitalization in Senegal
Interactive workshop
9:00-10:00am ET
Facilitators:
- Ibrahima Khaliloulah Dia, Coordinator, CSSDOS/MSAS Senegal
- Oumou Kalsom Diallo, Database Administrator of DHIS2, MOHSA
- Abdoul Salam Hane, Technical Program Officer, Digital Square at PATH
Digital Square at PATH is supporting Senegal to digitalize community health, under the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) Digital Community Health Initiative (DCHI).
Private Sector participation in India's Digital Health Mission: Building an engagement model
Presentation
11:00am-2:00pm ET
Okaley Room
Tanu Gupta, Senior Program Officer, Digital Health, PATH
FHIR Standards for Leaders Training
Interactive workshop
12:00-1:00pm ET
- Facilitators: Jose Costa Teixeira, Interoperability Advisor, PATH
Health care leaders are increasingly required to understand, adopt, and apply standards and best practices including HL7 FHIR, SNOMED, LOINC, ICD10/11, CIEL, IHE, and many others, which can be overwhelming. It is important that leaders have enough understanding of the relevant aspects of standards and standardization, without being required to be technologists. Based on this experience, CDC TAP and Digital Square have developed FHIR Standards for Leaders training.
Sustaining Open-Source Digital Health Tools through Localization - Experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa
Interactive workshop
12:00–1:00pm ET
Facilitators:
- Linda Taylor, Technical Program Manager, PATH Digital Square
- Rhonwyn Cornell, Program Manager: Capacity Strengthening, Digital Square/PATH
This knowledge generating workshop draws on first hand experiences of in–country organizations and local service providers sustaining open source digital solutions when donor funding ends. Using contributions from health services in several African countries, local digital health provider research conducted by Digital Square, and shared experiences of the session participants, this workshop will contribute to the growing discussion around localization of digital health systems.
Online Learning as an Innovation and Sustainability Initiative in Digital Health in Low and Middle Income Countries
Individual presentation
12:00-1:00pm ET
Presenters:
- Vivian Korir, Program Manager Capacity Strengthening, Digital Square at PATH
- Diana Kamar, Head, Digital Health Innovation, Ministry of Health, Kenya
- Prof Robert Oboko, Faculty, Department of Computing & Informatics, University of Nairobi
- Charles Mugambi, eLearning Task Lead, USAID HealthIT, University of Nairobi
It’s Not You, Its Us: Primes vs Local Innovators - Exploring the Tensions, Incentives and Successes of North-South Digital Health Collaborations
Pre-formed panel
12:00-1:00pm ET
Session panelists:
- Carlos Yerena, Head of Partnerships & Growth , Praekelt.org
- Luke Shankland, Chief Operations Officer, Aviro Health
- Carl Fourie, Deputy Director of Global Goods, Digital Square/PATH
- Erica Troncoso, Digital Solutions Strategist, Abt Associates
This Panel will discuss candid experiences of grant Prime contractors and the local innovators that they collaborate with.
Measuring the effect on health outcomes and costs of digital health interventions: a scalable approach to compare impact and guide equitable investment
Individual presentation
1:00–2:00pm ET
- Presenter: Peder Digre, Program Officer, PATH
Financing Digital Programs Sustainably
Lightening Talk
2:15–3:15pm ET
- Presenter: Ryan Pinza, Market Dynamics Associate, PATH