IntraHealth Presents At The Berkeley Conference On The Global Health Workforce

Dr. Pamela McQuide and Dykki Settle will present “Measuring and Monitoring the Health Workforce using Open Source Tools” at the 2008 Berkeley Conference on the Global Health Workforce: From Evidence and Research to Public and Health Care Industry Policy, April 4–6. Part of the panel “Health Worker Mobility and Incentives,” this presentation will explore the ways the IntraHealth-led Capacity Project has used open source software to develop human resource information systems (HRIS) for health care capacity building in developing countries.

In order to make planning and management decisions that are responsive to the needs of a country’s health care system, accurate and timely data on human resources for health are critical. Such data include information about health worker licensure, recruitment, training, deployment, management and retention. Ministries of health, professional councils and professional organizations can use HRIS to track human resource data from the point when a health worker begins training to his or her exit from the workforce.

McQuide and Settle will discuss the Capacity Project’s HRIS strengthening process, examining both software development issues and interactions with stakeholder leadership. They will cover infrastructure strengthening, the choice of software solutions, data driven decision making, and sustainability and continuous improvement. The presentation will include two case studies of HRIS development in Uganda and Swaziland.

More information on IntraHealth’s HRIS work, as well as freely downloadable software, is available here.