Supporting Front-line Health Workers with Information Technologies

iHRIS team lead Dykki Settle is co-author of an article appearing in the November 2013 Bulletin of the World Health Organization. The theme for the bulletin is "human resources for universal health coverage." The article, "Leveraging information technology to bridge the health workforce gap," makes recommendations for how information and communication technologies can be used in training, deploying, supporting, and empowering front-line health workers.

The article describes the many tools now in our arsenal. These ICT tools include multimedia training courses, clinical decision support tools, and even social networks. The proliferation of mobile phones and new developments in mHealth means that these tools can now reach health workers in the most remote areas of the world.

Such tools can be linked with national health professional registration and licensure systems, health workforce management systems, and training management systems, such as the iHRIS suite of health workforce information tools. Used together, these tools support health workers throughout their careers and help ensure that patients have access to high-quality health services.

Of course, many challenges in leveraging these technologies in low-resource settings still exist. The article addresses these challenges and concludes with several recommendations for training, supporting, and empowering health workers through the use of ICTs. Congratulations to Dykki and his co-authors on publishing in this month's WHO Bulletin.

Read the article, "Leveraging information technology to bridge the health workforce gap," on the WHO website.