News & Updates

Four new countries have recently adopted iHRIS and four more are in the planning stage to use the open-source health information system.Presently, 23 countries utilize iHRIS to track and manage more than one million health workers. That is up from 18 countries in 2013.The countries entering the planning stages to adopt iHRIS include: Bhutan Dominican Republic Ethiopia The GambiaThe possibility that 27 countries could utilize iHRIS illustrates the...

On Saturday, November 7, the World Health Organization declared Sierra Leone Ebola-free. Hundreds flooded the streets of Freetown to celebrate and pay tribute to those whose lives were lost during the outbreak. I read about the celebrations online with joy and happiness—they’d finally made it. I could almost hear the drums playing from North Carolina. Over the past year during my travels to Freetown, I’ve observed the struggles and hardships...

Two new awards from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will help IntraHealth International improve health workforce information and its use in countries around the world. Many countries suffer from critical shortages of both health workers and data on their health workforces. For countries to achieve universal health coverage and increase access to high-quality family planning, HIV, and other health services, health leaders need to...

IntraHealth International announces a major release of the iHRIS health workforce information software. Version 4.2 introduces changes to the core software that improve data presentation and usability.iHRIS (pronounced “iris”) is a suite of free open source software specifically designed to supply low-resource countries with information to track, manage, deploy, and budget for their health workers. The iHRIS software has had 12 minor releases...

This post originally appeared on The Huffington Post :For most of us, only a handful of moments will etch themselves forever into our memories. For me, one came when I learned that Ebola had broken out in West Africa.It was December 2013 and I was watching the news. The ticker tape across the bottom of the screen confirmed an outbreak in Guinea. The news anchor didn't even mention it. Then I watched from afar as the epidemic spread out of control...

IntraHealth International announces a major release of the iHRIS health workforce information software. Version 4.2 introduces changes to the core software that improve data presentation and usability. iHRIS (pronounced “iris”) is a suite of free open source software specifically designed to supply low-resource countries with information to track, manage, deploy, and budget for their health workers. The iHRIS software has had 12 minor releases...

Poring over data from his native Democratic Republic of Congo this summer, Jean Lambert Chalachala uncovered some interesting—and troubling—aspects of the DRC’s health workforce. For one thing, he says, a third of the nurses for whom there are data in the DRC are over 60 years old. “Do you understand what this means?” he asks. “The official retirement age in the DRC is 60—they should be retired. And we will need new nurses to replace them.” Since...

Today, health sectors around the world—including throughout Africa, South and Central America, and Asia—are swimming in data.New health information systems are helping officials track not only disease outbreaks and health care needs, but their countries’ health workforces as well. Countries can now find out how many health workers they have, whether those workers are up-to-date on their licenses and training, and whether they’re stationed in the...

The lack of data on frontline health workers, particularly community health workers (CHWs), constrains training, service delivery, and decision-making in global health. To understand better why this data is critical, and what can be done to improve it, mPowering Frontline Health workers and the One Million Health Workers Campaign are conducting a series of interviews to hear from the experts. This week, we interviewed Dr. Kate Tulenko, Vice...

The Ebola outbreak of West Africa didn’t hit overnight like a tsunami or earthquake—rather, the disaster gradually took over the region beginning in December 2013, really gaining speed in late summer of 2014. Along the way, weaknesses in health systems, including support to frontline health workers, were exposed, accelerating the spread of the virus. Like many in the field of global health and development, my colleagues and I at IntraHealth...