The Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) has continued to support the Ministry of Health (MOH) through innovative implementations that help the quality delivery of health services.

CIDRZ, through the Strategic Information (SI) Unit, took part in this year’s Zambia Digital Health Conference held in Lusaka under the theme: “Digital Transformation for Health Access”.

The objectives for the conference included to – reform digital health governance, improve the sustainability of the digital health Ecosystem, and develop digital health workforce capacity and capabilities

Strategic Information Manager Jacob Mutale said the key focus area of the Data Modernization Initiative (DMI) under the CIDRZ PROUDZ program is to support extending the business intelligence and analytics for the MOH national data warehouse to meet the needs of its programs.

He noted that these analytic tools would be developed as self-service platforms that allow users to explore HIV/AIDS and other disease surveillance data in a meaningful way. The DMI will run as collaboration with MOH, Institute for Health Management (IHM), Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI), and Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL).

Mr. Mutale said that access to timely, accurate, and relevant data, and a well-trained global workforce capable of interpreting data, is critical for disease understanding and response.

During the conference, CIDRZ through the USAID funded TBLON project – Strategic Information Manager Paul Kaumba, presented a web-based intelligent helpdesk-support system to monitor the turnaround time for GeneXpert Technical Support as well as further advancement to support the GeneXpert Help Desk in line with the 2022 Digital Health Strategy launched by the Ministry of Health.