Uganda’s Health Ministry Permanent Secretary, Dr. Diana Atwine, has launched the Uganda Health Information and Digital Health Strategic plan.
According to Dr. Atwine, it will go a long way in breaking the silos into one integrated digitalized health system that delivers quality data for better planning, supervision and performance assessment.
“If we go digital, it’ll bring efficiency as info becomes accessible in real time for decision making. It’ll answer many of the quality related health sector challenges in HRM, diagnostics, accountability etc , for targeted interventions vs the omnibus approach,” Dr. Atwine said during Monday’s launch held at Speke Resort Munyonyo.
She added, “This should be driven by change management and attitude change. We should accept to do things differently for different results. This is where we want to go as a sector, as a country. Digitalization is the oxygen we need for efficiency and cost effectiveness in services delivery.”
The strategies in the plan adhere to the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) principles towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 and other global and regional health commitments.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the purpose for a Global Strategy on Digital Health is to promote healthy lives and wellbeing for everyone, everywhere, at all ages.
It is also, to deliver its potential, national or regional Digital Health initiatives must be guided by a robust Strategy that integrates financial, organizational, human and technological resources.