The Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Support (METS) Program is a 5-year CDC-supported collaboration of Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and Health Information Systems Program (HISP Uganda).

Highlights of the METS July 2022 Newsletter

• Fostering interoperability for Data Exchange across Health Information Systems in Uganda
  • The Viral Load (VL) exchange: VL test requests and results are exchanged between facility-based EMRs (UgandaEMR and ClinicMaster) and the VL information systems housed at the MoH Central Public Health Laboratories (CPHL).
  • The EMR-DHIS2 (NextGen reporting) exchange: Enables aggregated data from facility-based EMR to be exchanged with the national electronic health data reporting system (DHIS2).
  • HIV recency testing and case based surveillance: De-identified patient level data is sent from the facility EMR to a central database, where it is cleaned, and transformed and visualized on a dashboard.
  • EMR usage statistics exchange: As the rollout of UgandaEMR continues to increase through the implementation model of working with comprehensive implementing partners, there is a need to track the progress of new site setup, upgrade of existing sites and migration to Point of Care (PoC).
  • EMR- electronic TB Case Based Surveillance System (eCBSS) exchange: THis integration is a 2-way sync of patient level data between the two systems, UgandaEMR at health facility and eCBSS deployed and managed centrally.

• METS applauded for supporting the Mid-Term Review of HMIS Tools
  • MoH with support from METS organized a 14-day retreat from 4 – 15 July 2022 at the Source of the Nile Hotel in Jinja. Several key stakeholders participated with over 130 representatives from the Ministry of Health/AIDS Control Program, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), USAID, METS, SITES, Uganda Cancer Institute, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Program (NTLP), National Drug Authority, Regional Referral Hospitals, ARC, PATH, PEPFAR Implementing Partners such as Baylor Uganda, Rakai Health Sciences Program, TASO, Mildmay among others.

• UgandaEMR an Open Source supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • The Response Innovation Lab, in partnership with URIDU organized an innovation and networking event focusing on Open Source as a contribution towards SDGs focusing on Health, Education and Equity. This event was held on the 6th July 2022 at Fairway Hotel Kampala.
  • Discussions focused on use of Open Source and its contribution; possibilities of integration to optimize resources and access; scalability of it to across all health care points, building on top of UgandaEMR to meet the needs of public and private health care providers.

• Using Single Page Application (SPA) in UgandaEMR to improve service delivery at Family Health clinic
  • Makerere University School of Public Health Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Support Programs (MakSPH-METS) in partnership with the stakeholders organized “Bootcamps” to develop and improve features in the UgandaEMR to cater to the needs of users while improving Family Health services delivery at public Health Facilities across the country.
  • At the end of the Bootcamps, the developers were able to achieve notable milestones;
    • MCH (Maternal and child health) Registers completed and integrated into the latest version of UgandaEMR
    • Added 3 more forms under Family Health Module (Child Health and Family Planning registers)
    • Created a design document draft for the requirements to be used in the development of SPA react based interface. SPA is single page application module embedded into OpenMRS
    • Completed the process of packaging UgandaEMR in OpenMRS 3.x frontend, ensuring that all the data entry tools/ forms are saving properly
    • Completed the migration of UgandaEMR concept management to OpenMRS

• Lessons Learnt from Case Based Surveillance Pilot
  • The Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), with funding from CDC piloted CBS to inform potential national scale-up.
  • This pilot was implemented in partnership with MoH, UCSF and the regional implementing partners. The CBS Pilot was implemented at high volume Health facilities in the districts of Kabarole, Bunyangabu, Kikuube and Hoima from 2016. The selection of pilot districts was informed by the high HIV prevalence rates in the selected districts at the time.

• Annual Supply Chain Week
  • The Annual Health Supply Chain Week was a platform to showcase digitization innovations in the Health Supply Chain system. The digitization process is essential for improving performance, efficiency and strengthening data driven decision making across the health supply chain system.
  • The event was part of the several activities under the theme ‘Digitizing the Health Supply Chain, a key component in implementing the 10-year National Health Supply chain roadmap.