WG Objectives
The purpose of the work group “eHealth users” is to provide cross-cutting support to the work of other working groups by ensuring that the perspectives of health users are taken into account in all planning and activities.
The working group supports Tanzanian and Finnish partners by performing and supporting eHealth research, projects and collaboration that is relevant to the end users of health technology, including health workers in clinics and hospitals.
Students are interviewing the personnel of NM-AIST about their information system needs
WG Coordinator: Annariina Koivu (Tampere University)
Activities and achievements
Healthcare workers’ eHealth competence is a significant, but often overlooked, factor for successful eHealth implementation. The implementation of eHealth has radically transformed the health sector workforce’s competency requirements, and has created challenges, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
Example of the care pathway of a Tanzanian clinic. Every professional participating in the care pathway should have adequate eHealth competences.
Within the ‘Contributing to capacity building of developing and using Health Information Systems in Tanzania’ a study was conducted on the competences of eHealth users by Anni Laitinen (Tampere University). The study has been published as an academic article and in collaborative technical report format.
Healthcare Workers’ eHealth Competences in Private Health Centres in Urban Tanzania
Laitinen, Anni; Koivu, Annariina; Nykänen, Pirkko; Kimaro, Honest (2020)
Journal of Health Informatics in Developing Countries 14 1
Link: https://www.jhidc.org/index.php/jhidc/article/view/249
When collecting material from the health centers in Arusha, one could admire the Mt. Meru rising in the background.
The working group has also published a report on eHealth user’s experiences of central hospital information systems in Tanzania. The report presents user experiences of systems GoTHOMIS, Care2x and AfyaPro) used in Tanzanian hospitals. Report is a sequel to a report ‘The comparison of GoTHOMIS, Care2x and AfyaPro Hospital information systems in Tanzania – Technical aspects’ (Finne, 2018) that focused on technical aspects of the three systems.
Laitinen, Kerenge & Koivu (2020). User Experiences of Hospital Information Systems in Tanzania – Report of User Experiences of GoTHOMIS, Care2x and AfyaPro. Finnish Christian Medical Society, Dar es Salaam.
Further activities
- Supportive supervision of MSc / PhD dissertations, exchange of students and researchers
- Sharing ‘Lessons learned’
- Collaboration and networking
- Two Tanzania students (Fred Boniphase, Lilian Mkonyi) participated in Tampere University Summer School on Human-Technology Interaction in 2018
Future activities
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the plans to contribute to the training of eHealth users in selected locations in Tanzania has been cancelled.
