By Kemo Cham
Sierra Leone has made history with the completion of a nationwide roll out of an electronic health surveillance system, making it the first African country to do so.
The Electronic Disease Surveillance and Response (e-DSR) system has transformed data collection from paper-based to digital devises, which health authorities say will eliminate a perennial problem of delay in reporting and improve data accuracy and efficiency.
The Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO), among other partners, announced the landmark achievement at a ceremony in the northern Tonkolili District on Thursday, which marked the conclusion of training for the last batch of health ministry staffers.
Since 2016, when a pilot phase was done in one district, health workers drawn from the over 1, 300 government owned health facilities across the country were trained on the use of electronic tablets to collect, save and transmit data.
The initiative is part of efforts to improve on Sierra Leone’s Disease Surveillance system and make it ready to respond appropriately to emergencies, officials said.
Dr Thomas Takpau Samba, Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), said Sierra Leone had gone through so much emergencies that the experience underscored the need for proper coordination in emergency response.
“This is by no means a small achievement. This is a quantum leap in our health system. It will make our health system more responsive [and] more robust to the health needs of the people,” he said.
The e-DSR was born out of the WHO African region’s Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy designed to improve public health surveillance and response by making information readily available for disease control. This is also one of the strategic platforms for implementing the global health agency’s International Health Regulation.
Officials said the idea of the e-DSR in Sierra Leone was also informed by the outcome of a rapid assessment of the country’s disease surveillance system in 2015, following the outbreak of the deadly Ebola epidemic, which revealed several major gaps, including a lack of adequate reporting tools, difficulties with transmitting data, and limited access to laboratory information on priority diseases. These gaps were attributed to the existing difficult surveillance system, which has been blamed for late detection, response to and control of public health emergencies.
A total of 28 priority diseases are reported on every week from all parts of the country under its disease surveillance system.
With this new technology, reporting, monitoring and evaluation are done in real time, which officials say will allow the relevant authorities to act rapidly in the event of any reported case of a potential emergency outbreak.
The e-DSR has been integrated with the District Health Information System (DHIS2). And, according to officials, it has already translated to an improvement in the system.
Testimonies were heard from chiefdom to district to national levels, demonstrating how it has transformed their operations.
In the northern Kambia district, for instance, the Health Management Team reported a 98% timely report on the first week of its introduction. Weekly reporting has since then been between 90% and 100%, said a representative of the District Health Management Team.
The journey to get Sierra Leone fully digitalize its health surveillance system involved multiple players, including the WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), both of which provided technical and financial support, as well as the medical technology firm, e-Health Africa which developed the tools and apps through which the data is collected and transmitted.
The EDSR was first piloted in Port Loko District, before it was rolled dout to the rest of the country. Several other local players have been involved since the initial stage, among them the local health campaign group, Focus 1000, which provided most of the tablets distributed to the health facilities, in addition to training for health staffers in some chiefdoms and districts.
WHO country Representative, Dr Evans Liyosi hailed the achievement as a testimony to what collaboration and partnership can deliver. He added that it’s a testimony to the need for all to embrace technology in health interventions.
Dr Liyosi also attributed the achievement to good leadership.
“Transitioning disease surveillance data reporting from the traditional old style paper-based format to a computerized format using an advanced technology is ground-breaking for Sierra Leone and we are very proud of being a pivotal part of this great achievement – from its conception to planning and full implementation,” he said in a statement.
“This is a huge success story of partnership. Partners worked together to support the country to achieve this goal. Other countries in the region have a lot to learn from our collaboration and our experience,” he added.
Dr Liyosi, who has been in Sierra Leone for only about four months since he assumed the leadership at the WHO Country office, noted that while the e-DSR was a milestone worth celebrating, Sierra Leone must aim beyond this level, citing the task ahead in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and the Universal Health goal which aims at leaving no one behind in healthcare services access.
“We don’t want Sierra Leone to be successful in one thing. We want it to be successful in everything,” the WHO rep told the audience in the conference hall of the Tonkolili District Council in Magburaka. He also called on the health ministry to consider including private and faith-based health facilities in e-DSR system so as not to miss out on the chance of recording any disease under surveillance.
© 2019 Politico Online
