On May 6, Capacity Plus hosted its third knowledge-sharing and dissemination event, Better Data, Stronger Health Workforce: The Open Source iHRIS Approach . Held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, the event showcased iHRIS , the leading open source software for tracking and managing data on the health workforce. Through a combination of presentations by USAID and Capacity Plus , interactive roundtable discussions, software...

Capacity Plus has published a new technical brief, Establishing and Using Data Standards in Health Workforce Information Systems , co-authored by iHRIS team members Dykki Settle, Michael Webba Lwetabe, Amanda Puckett, and Carl Leitner. Human resources information systems are successful when they support policy and management decisions and when those decisions lead to better health care. However, success depends on the quality of the human...

Note: This is a reblog of a post originally published on the Capacity Plus blog. To improve the population’s access to high-quality health care, countries require current, accurate data on their health workforce. Togo is one of 19 countries using iHRIS , the leading open source software for national health workforce information systems. “iHRIS is used in Togo in order to identify health workers across the country,” says Kadjanta Tchaa of the...

Health workforce managers have a new tool they can count on to better know and manage their health workforce. iHRIS Train, which manages data on the education of health professionals—both before entering the profession and while in service—is the latest application in the growing iHRIS lineup of workforce management software . iHRIS Train sheds light on a critical area of the health workforce picture. This tool collects and reports data on the...

By Margarite Nathe Dykki Settle leads the iHRIS team in developing open source health workforce information solutions. Follow @dykki on Twitter . Data, data, data—they’re the fuel that powers any robust national health care system. They can propel a country toward the Shangri-La of universal health coverage—or they can hold one back. IntraHealth’s Dykki Settle answers five questions about how the right information in the right hands could pave...

The potential for using health workforce data to improve access to quality health services just got greater. Care Services Discovery , a profile of data standards and guidance for organizing and identifying health facilities, health care organizations, health workers, and health services, was recently published by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise , a global initiative to improve the way health information systems share information. The...

Countries need accurate health worker data in order to develop effective human resources for health (HRH) policies. A new diagnostic tool from the World Health Organization (WHO) helps policy makers gather information on the uses, type, and quality of HRH data available in countries at the institutional level. This information can be used to develop policies and identify resources for strengthening human resources information systems (HRIS)...

The WHO Health Workforce Information Reference Group (HIRG) has released a new country assessment tool on the sources and uses of human resources (HRH) for health data , which is an adapted version of the instrument included in our HRIS Strengthening Toolkit . This diagnostic tool contains questions intended to gather information on the uses, types, and quality of data on HRH at the institutional level in countries. This step is critical to...

CapacityPlus Technical Brief #2. By Kayode Odusote, Carol Bales, Sarah Dwyer, and Dykki Settle. The West African Health Organization (WAHO) is implementing a regional approach to strengthening health workforce information systems, leveraging resources from Capacity Plus , other USAID-funded projects, donors, and global organizations. This technical brief provides an overview of this approach, highlights lessons learned, and provides...

The Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Council (UMDPC) recently launched a new mobile directory, which provides information Ugandans can use to seek health services from qualified health workers at qualified facilities. By combining health workforce data with mobile phone technology, the system also allows council staff and health facility managers to easily verify health professionals’ credentials and cut down on unqualified practitioners...