iMMAP provided a broad spectrum of health information management (IM) services to our partners in 2020. We assisted global, regional, and country health clusters and other health actors by providing solutions that facilitated their interventions, including the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while maintaining crucial health care services and tackling new crises.
Through our surge support program and the Standby Partnership, iMMAP seconded 26 information management officers (IMOs) to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020. 19 of these experts supported the work of WHO in different countries, two iMMAP IMOs supported the activities of the Global Health Cluster, and five iMMAP personnel supported the work of WHO in different regional offices across the world.
As co-chair of the Global Health Cluster’s (GHC) Information Management Task Team, iMMAP supported WHO and GHC in 2020 by conducting 72 online training sessions that helped improve the quality, timeliness and access to public health information according to agreed Public Health Information Services Standards. iMMAP also helped strengthen GHC assessments and supported the development of the GHC Core Indicators for global humanitarian health response.
In addition to iMMAP’s support to global and regional efforts, IM services were provided locally from our country offices:
MONTHS OF CUMULATIVE HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT WORK PROVIDED TO PARTNERS
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT EXPERTS SECONDED TO THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT WORKSHOPS FOR THE GLOBAL HEALTH CLUSTER
iMMAP in Colombia developed an information system to support the partners of the Health Cluster/Sector to improve the process of capturing, processing and analyzing information related to health services, epidemiological monitoring, and the humanitarian situation in several regions across the country.
In Ethiopia, among other activities, iMMAP designed the Health Cluster Information Management System (HCIMS), which helped to enhance data collection, consolidation, cleaning and analysis. Moreover, in support of the National Public Health Emergency Operations Center’s (EOC) technical unit for public health emergencies, iMMAP contributed to strengthening the public health surveillance system by developing a mobile monitoring platform to collect, manage, and analyze health surveillance data.
iMMAP Nigeria worked within the Health Sector in processing and analyzing health-related data, producing regular information products such as the Health Sector bulletin, weekly Early Warning Alert and Response (EWARS)/Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) bulletins, gaps and needs analysis reports, and BAY states outbreak bulletins.
In Iraq, through capacity strengthening activities and developing a robust IM system, iMMAP supported the Iraqi Red Crescent Society’s Health Department to identify information gaps, enhance reporting forms, and gather accurate data to implement targeted response operations.
iMMAP in Syria contributed to the Humanitarian Program Cycle (HPC) 2020 by supporting the Whole of Syria Health Cluster People in Need and Severity Scale, Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessment and Humanitarian Needs Overview 2020.
In Yemen, iMMAP supported WHO and UNICEF health sectors to facilitate the response to various emergencies with a wide array of IM approaches to improve data quality and ultimately increase epidemiological awareness of health partners.
In support of WHO Dubai Logistics Hub, iMMAP conducted a project that monitored, tracked, reported and visualized the supply chain data and consumption patterns in order to centralize the procurement of medical commodities and pre-position supplies in Dubai, United Arabs Emirates.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) iMMAP delivered IM services to WHO as a part of the Ebola Response Coordination Analysis Unit in the Emergency Operations Centre in Goma. Our work helped to identify potential Ebola flareups and uncover hidden EVD transmission chains through the development of a tool, in collaboration with CDC, WHO and partners, that collects data on patients, locations, and the OraQuick® Ebola Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) results, and presents the information through a dashboard. Also in DRC, iMMAP supported WHO in the Go.Data Project, an outbreak investigation tool for field data collection in emergencies.
iMMAP Afghanistan assisted WHO and the Health Cluster with multiple IM activities throughout the year, including support for the presentation of a comprehensive WHO-led One UN COVID-19 response recap, and the regular production of the Attacks on Health dashboard to support WHO.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated other ongoing health crises, driving all responding actors to seek coordinated interventions to leverage the limited available resources. iMMAP supported an integral health response by providing solutions that facilitated data-driven and informed emergency operations across the world by our partners.