West Africa aims to become centre of excellence for health information
26 November 2010
The West African Health Organization, WAHO, has expressed its goal of becoming a centre of excellence for health information systems. This took place at the first annual health information system strengthening workshop for the region occurring on 22-26 November 2010 in Dakar, Senegal.
As a centre of excellence WAHO would provide advice and technical support to countries, promote the use of standards across the region, and coordinate similar efforts to achieve better inter-country collaboration.
The objectives of the workshop were to present the status and plans for health information systems for all 15 member countries of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), and establish a common forum for countries and organizations to exchange experiences and technical support.
Health information officers and health information system managers from all ECOWAS member states were present, as were international organizations and research institutions. HMN, together with representatives from Sierra Leone and other partners that had been involved there, presented the HMN Framework and the achievements towards an integrated health information system based on interoperability and standards. During this workshop, WAHO invited HMN to become a technical partner, and help realize the vision of a centre of excellence.
The event was the first in a series of annual health information system workshops, a forum WAHO is committed to institutionalize in order to provide long-term monitoring and evaluation of health information systems among member states.