News & Updates

Capacity Project's Informatics Director and HRIS Team lead, Dykki Settle, was recently certified as an Enterprise Architect, after completing an invitational TOGAF 8 training course offered by WHO's Health Metrics Network secretariat. Enterprise Architecture refers to how an information system is organized, the relationship of its data components, and the principles governing its design and evolution. TOGAF stands for The Open Group Architectural...

While Africa has not developed the extensive wired infrastructure of the "Global North," they have managed to leapfrog wired technology to an unprecedented adoption of mobile phones. According to the UN Foundation, fully 64% of mobile users are in the developing world, and 80% of the world’s population now live in an area with mobile coverage. This number will rise to 85% by next year alone. These are the very areas of the world with the majority...

The HRH Global Resource Center is a global library of human resources for health (HRH) resources focused on developing countries that was developed by the Capacity Project. The collection contains many valuable resources on information systems, including information system development and human resources information systems. These resources includes journal articles, reports, statistics, presentations, briefs, conferences, tools and more. If you...

On February 5, the Capacity Project’s Dykki Settle, Informatics Director, and Luke Duncan, Senior Systems Developer, presented the iHRIS software suite’s training management module at a Training Management Systems Summit in Arlington, VA. The module is compatible with the Project’s iHRIS Manage software ( an HR management system ) and iHRIS Qualify software (a training and licensure tracking database) , and enables HR departments to schedule...

In the early 1980s MIT programmer Richard Stallman decided to build a replacement to the very expensive, proprietary UNIX computer operating system and make it completely free. His idea of what free meant extended the boundaries a bit when he formed the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and included in his mission statement, "availability of source code and freedom to redistribute and modify software are fundamental rights." Out of this the General...

With Tanzania field support funding the Capacity Project recently launched the first installation of our new HRIS appliance. The appliance, pictured below, is a small computer without a traditional screen, keyboard, or mouse. A network administrator uses the small LCD screen and few buttons on front to install the appliance on the LAN and then directs users to their ready-to-use iHRIS installation. This model represents another low-cost, fast...

The need for better information on health workers is critical to addressing not just the oft-challenged health worker crisis, but to deal with any and all health issues, on every level from local communities to the entire world.There are many efforts undertaken around the world to improve the availability, analysis and use of health worker information. Governments, health service delivery organizations, parastatal registration and licensure...

Here is an update on our development calendar for the first part of 2009.The highest priority feature on our schedule right now is import/export data. This would allow decentralized use of iHRIS, such as installing the Windows versions in districts that can then exchange data with a centralized server version. Several countries are currently implementing this.The import/export feature is complex and has a lot of dependencies. For example, we need...

The critical need for strong information systems to manage and deliver better data about national health resources is widely acknowledged by development agencies, donors, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and USAID. Others have attempted to provide human resource information systems (HRIS) for developing countries, with little success. Understanding these failures has informed the development and field testing of our systems. We have...

In January, an evaluation was performed in Uganda to assess the Capacity Project’s HRIS strengthening work thus far. A team of evaluators conducted qualitative interviews with over 20 key informants involved in improving the country’s HRIS at the central and district level, including representatives from Capacity Project Uganda, the Health Workforce Advisory Board (HWAB), the four professional health councils, the Ministry of Health (MOH), and...