The workshop will equip participants with tools to map and plan investments required for building a digital health enterprise in a phased and sustainable approach. It will also familiarize participants with socio-economic benefit analysis, which helps to develop better business cases for digital health and ensure that health workers and patients benefit from these investments. The Standards and Interoperability Lab Asia (SIL-Asia) will facilitate the workshop. This will allow participants to learn about SIL-Asia resources and how to deploy them in the country context.

Recent developments on civil registration and vital statistics are showing promise especially as they pertain to health information systems interoperability. In this session, experts from the Center of Excellence for CRVS (IDRC), UNICEF, World Bank, Thailand and Myanmar will share their experiences with digitizing their CRVS and the implementation.

Data science is about transforming data sources into valuable insights, predictions and shared knowledge. This innovative field includes predictive analytics, standardization and terminology services, ICT foundational aspects, data integration and a critical focus on data use and quality. As this fascinating science continues to evolve, expertise in collecting, managing and visualizing data is required. With huge volumes of data being generated, governments and organizations can be deluged with data from various sources from population level to person-centric. Ministry leaders and partners have key decisions to make. Among them what specific technologies, processes, policies and human resources to invest in. Considerations of interoperability, ease of use, privacy and security are also central in planning. Consistent with AeHIN’s Mind the GAPS framework, this 6th GM leading edge session will highlight data centric solutions as investments in enterprise architecture and interoperability. How technology can be used to disrupt the current cycle of labor-intensive data management and reporting will be explored and case studies presented. Input will be gathered from session participants for a possible joint publication. A key outcome of the session will be the generation of a high level plan for a new Data Science collaborative for the Asia and Pacific to assist countries in achieving the SDGs and UHC.

DHIS2 is a popular health management information system used by at least 12 Asian countries. This session allows countries to share experiences, latest development with DHIS2,  and how they can mutually support each other.

Last year at a Joint Learning Network’s session on Social Health Insurance, a large number of participants expressed their need and wishes for an ICT system to manage health insurance scheme. Thus was born OpenIMIS is now freely available with  resources to be released in 2019. This is a great opportunity for countries/scheme operators/development orgs who expressed interest to help create a requirements list for the future of OpenIMIS.

What tools are being used to support the maturity of country digital health systems? Where are there gaps where existing tools need to be refined, or new tools are needed? Join and contribute to this discussion facilitated by the Digital Health & Interoperability (DH&I) Working Group of theHealth Data Collaborative (HDC). The HDC is an inclusive partnership of international agencies, governments, philanthropies, donors and academics, with the common aim of improving health data. The DH&I Working Group of the HDC is a group of 170+ members working to: (1) optimize the meaningful use and reuse of health information technology in low and middle income countries to support achievement of SDGs through the implementation of foundational digital health infrastructures; (2) actively promote the development, use, and long-term support of digital health ‘global public goods’; and (3) increase, in a measurable way, the level and alignment of country and partner investments in support of the first two objectives. The discussion will: raise awareness of existing tools, gather input for their refinement, look for opportunities to facilitate cross-learning from various regional perspectives, and identify potential new areas of collaboration in tool development, refinement, and/or promotion. Reactors include representatives from governments, academia, regional networks, and regional development banks.  

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In this workshop, collaboration of two leading digital health innovation centers in AeHIN will be presented. SIL-Asia, the regional health interoperability lab powered by AeHIN and with support from ADB and PCRF, will present a deep-dive on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), the leading draft standard in digital health messaging and communication, and a hands-on training on the HAPI FHIR server currently maintained by SIL-Asia. A discussion on Blockchain, particularly its application to health data, will follow. The Hsu Lab, currently housed at the National Taiwan University of Nursing and Health Sciences will then present their work on developing a Personal Health Record (PHR) application using Blockchain. After the discussions and the demonstration, a workshop on developing a FHIR profile for PHRs will be done with the attendees. Technical discussions will be also be conducted to help participants develop a practical understanding of FHIR, and how IHE profiles can be used to help countries in their journey towards interoperability. A short demo on blockchain-based PHR system will also be presented by the Taiwan eHealth Association.

With the advent of accessible digital technology more than a decade ago, international development organizations began seeking new ways of including digital tools in their programming for improved outcomes. These efforts were initially quite successful; significant advancements occurred in various sectors such as health and agriculture, more communities around the globe were connected, and underserved populations were reached in a way that had not been possible before. However, some digitally-enabled programs failed – and quite often that failure was for reasons that were both predictable and preventable. This workshop will introduce the participants to the Principles for Digital Development and how they can apply these to their own countries. During the second part of the meeting, the formation of the AeHIN Community of Interoperability Labs will be presented. SIL-Asia will present how interoperability labs can be organized and established with the guidance of the SIL-Asia co-creation Framework. This session will be open to all countries who are interested to set-up their own health interoperability lab

Prof. Vajira H. W. Dissanayake

President, Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka

Chairman, Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health

Chairperson, Specialty Board in Biomedical Informatics, University of Colombo

Sri Lanka

Dr. Boonchai Kijsanayotin

Director, Thai Health Information Standards Development Center (THIS),

Health Systems Research Institute (HSRI), Thailand

Director General of Health Services,

Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medicine,

Sri Lanka

World Health Organization Representative for Sri Lanka,

World Health Organisation

Principal Knowledge Sharing and Services Specialist,

Asian Development Bank

Honorable Dr. Rajitha Senaratne

Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, Sri Lanka

Dr. Alvin Marcelo

Executive Director, Asia eHealth Information Network

Associate Professor of Surgery and Health Informatics, University of the Philippines Manila

Moderator: Alvin Marcelo

Malaysia (Fazilah Shaik Allaudin)

Myanmar (Nay Win Aung)

Bangladesh (Ashish Kumar Saha)

Sri Lanka (Anuruddha Indika Jagoda)

Moderator: Pura Angela Co

Philippines (Razel Nikka Hao)

Vietnam (Pham Than Dat)

Thailand (Polawat Witoolkollachit)

Thailand (Boonchai Kijsanayotin)

Japan (Shinji Kobayashi)

Taiwan (Marc Hsu)

Peru (Luis Obrego)

Moderator: Jai Ganesh Udayasankaran

World Health Organization (Mark Landry)

Asian Development Bank (Susann Roth)

United Nations Children's Fund (Lori Thorell)

Fondation Pierre Fabre (Béatrice Garrette)

Digital Impact Alliance (Kate Wilson)

United States Agency for International Development (Bill Weiss)