Description of Session
Large -scale implementation of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) in healthcare continue posing challenges in controlling costs, standards, and coordination of diverse stakeholders. Health Enterprise Architecture (HEA) refers to the structured alignment of health sector needs to ICT implementation. It describes the current state of an enterprise’s data, information systems, hardware, and organizational structures and the desired future status with increased efficiencies including the strategic plans for how to transition to the desired status. HEA comprises dynamic tools and processes that control complexities through automation and information exchange leading to improvement of data quality and timeliness of information. HEA implementation also leads to improved health program performance, controlled investments and risks, and improved health outcomes. Countries are at different stages in developing and implementing HEA. Kenya has developed the Kenya HEA (KHEA) and a USAID funded project, Health Informatics Governance and Data Analytics (HIGDA) initiated its implementation in selected counties(sub-national units). This presentation will discuss the role that HEA plays in enhancing ICT Governance towards large scale automation and interoperability. The session will highlight the progress made by Kakamega County Health Department in institutionalizing Heath Informatics Governance through the domestication and operationalization of the KHEA. The session will describe the steps that the County took to implement the KHEA and the consequent determination of maturity levels to guide action steps towards operationalizing automation and Interoperability. The session will then provide the results of this implementation by describing how it resulted in increased County ownership of ICT initiatives, increased budgetary allocation and, and improved stakeholder co-ordination. The results will also highlight the governance approaches that were used to implement health facility interoperability layers to enable information exchange between disparate health information systems and systems upgrades to meet the required standards.
