In Tanzania there are two universities cooperating with the eHealth project. One is the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) in Arusha. The other is the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).
Some teachers and students from Tampere University in Finland have contributed strongly to the activities throughout the project. In addition to the effort at Tanzanian and Finnish universities, two M.Sc. dissertations have been made in the scope of the eHealth project at the universities in Denmark.
Teachers and other personnel of the universities as well as students have participated in the events and joined research efforts with the Finnish actors. Many Ph.D. and M.Sc. dissertations have been made in the scope of the project. The project has also rewarded successful graduates with awards. You can read more about the university cooperation and the results here.
The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
Many joint efforts have been performed together between the eHealth project and NM-AIST, including seminars, dissertations and common research activities. One example is the comparison of three existing information systems together with UDSM and the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC). Two M.Sc. theses have been finalized in NM-AIST related to the project activities and one Ph.D. study is in progress.
NM-AIST is one of those partners performing an independent task during the Covid-19 pandemic. The task includes the development of an NFC (Near Field Communication) based system for the follow-up of the patients and the patient data. It can be used during the patient’s stay at the hospital. The solution increases the safety of the patients and also helps with the use of the medical records.
The web pages of the NM-AIST: https://nm-aist.ac.tz
The University of Dar es Salaam
The cooperation with UDSM has resulted in research seminars, dissertations and a study about the awareness and use of the Guidelines defined by MoH, for example. USDM contributed also to the comparison of three information systems, together with the specialists from eHealth, NM-AIST and CSSC.
The independent tasks agreed with the UDSM are related to the automatic transfer of the patient data from various HIS solutions to the national health management information system. The first task consists of the study of the systems from which the automatic transfer is possible and of the definition of the appropriate software architecture. The second task includes the implementation of the software. The benefit of the tool is that it saves time and decreases the number of human errors, when the data needs not to be supplied manually to the DHIS2 system anymore.
The web pages of UDSM: https://www.udsm.ac.tz
Tampere University
The teachers of Tampere University have given lessons, made research together with their Tanzanian colleagues and offered supportive supervision to the students. Some eHealth-related M.Sc. dissertations have been published at Tampere University. Also two teachers of the Tanzanian universities have participated in a course at Tampere University Summer School.
Link to Tampere University web pages: https://www.tuni.fi/en
Link to Tampere University Summer School: https://www.tuni.fi/en/study-with-us/summer-school
Link to the web page of the eHealth work group Research.
