eCHIS and Reveal set to integrate to geo-enable integrated health campaigns in Kenya
By Akros Media on May 16, 2023 in Health Data Systems, News, NTDs
Akros, with support from the END Fund through the Deworming Innovation Fund, worked with the Division of Vector Borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases (DVB NTD) of Kenya’s Ministry of Health (MOH) to improve the quality of neglected tropical diseases (NTD) microplanning in routine deworming programs.
During this project, Akros applied several tools to the microplanning process to support the six-step WHO microplanning strategy. Four counties in Western Kenya used the tools for schistosomiasis (SCH) and soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns in Kenya in 2021 and 2022. Vihiga County also deployed Reveal to track campaign resource usage and coverage outcomes at the community catchment level. Qualitative feedback through focus groups and survey responses showed that use of the geo-enabled process successfully guided teams through deeper population analysis, and led to more efficient allocation of drug resources and human resources for the MDA, as well as improved coverage and reach of the MDAs. Drawing upon user feedback on the microplanning process and tools, Akros adapted the microplanning features into the existing Reveal platform, an open source digital global good.
Seeing the successful geo-enablement of the microplanning process through Reveal, MOH Kenya, in collaboration with CHAI and WHO, have determined to integrate the existing Reveal campaign microplanning features into the improved electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS), which is being prepared for scale to support the digitization of integrated health campaigns. The improved eCHIS will include campaign delivery, monitoring and evaluation, household registry, campaign workers registry, and now Reveal microplanning features.
The timeline is short; the MOH, CHAI, WHO and Akros’ engineering team through the support of the END Fund’s Deworming Innovation Fund and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are kicking off their work together in June to map the integration (Reveal has an available API, which will jumpstart this process) and aims to have this project complete by August 2023. Simultaneously, Akros and the eCHIS engineers will build capacity within the Kenya MOH to maintain and make changes to eCHIS – including the integrated Reveal microplanning features – so that they are ready to own the Reveal components built into eCHIS.
Further, and simultaneously, Akros will support the MOH to map building footprints across four counties to help plan for forthcoming health campaigns. As part of this process, Akros will build the capacity of GIS experts to create and use maps for health campaigns and will collaborate on writing a costed Standard Operating Procedure to guide expansion of map creation in other counties.
