Kevin Zam

I agree with you but I also think transparency is also needed in Myanmar.

Thanks for your comprehensive discussion. I learned a lot from you.

Based on Al Knawy et al. (2022), the five themes for strong digital health systems are team, transparency and trust, technology, techquity, and transformation. In my country, Myanmar, some progress has been made, but several areas still need improvement:
Team: There is weak coordination among ministries, NGOs, and ethnic health organizations.…[Read more]

Thanks Ma Wah for your comprehensive discussion. I learned a lot from you.

Could you list the disease outbreaks that have been declared as the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)?
The Seven PHEIC according to IHR are as belows;
1. In 2009, H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu) Declared May 2009 and ended Aug 2010. It originated in Mexico/USA region.
2. In 2014, Poliomyelitis (Polio Resurgence) Declared May 2014…[Read more]

1. Which single design limitation most threatens valid estimates of sensitivity and representativeness? How would you address it within six weeks?
The biggest problem is that the AEFI system depends mostly on passive facility reporting, which misses many cases in the community and private clinics. This affects sensitivity and…[Read more]

Thanks for your comprehensive response

Verification and Preparation
Establish the existence of an outbreak: IT systems such as automated disease surveillance, electronic health records (EHRs), and real-time dashboards help detect unusual increases in case numbers, triggering early warnings for potential outbreaks.
Verify the diagnosis: Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS),…[Read more]

One digital technology I like most apart from contact tracing app from Budd et al. (2020) is the chatbot used in the COVID-19 public health response. Chatbots are computer programs that can talk with people through websites, apps, or messaging platforms. They use artificial intelligence to answer questions, give advice, and guide people on what to…[Read more]

Thanks for your comprehensive response. I agree with your opinion on using facebook as a dissemination tool.

For dengue…

1. How can surveillance help to detect and control the disease?
It can detect outbreaks early and triggers rapid response (vector control, awareness campaigns) and monitor trends, seasonality, and geographic spread of dengue. Surveillance can help describe burden and risk groups (age, sex, area). It can evaluate the effectiveness of m…[Read more]

In the given scenario, a Western research team is asking data in detail at individual level for each disease case.
1. Should you give the data out?
No, I should not give out detailed personal data directly. It would break data privacy and confidentiality rules.

2. How do you not violate any of the General Principles of Informatics Ethics?
I must…[Read more]

According to the given scenario, my close friend’s husband has HIV and she did not know about that.

1. What should I do?
I should keep the patient’s information private and not tell anyone. My duty is to protect confidentiality.

2. As a health information professional – can you tell your friend?
No, I cannot tell my friend. It would break pat…[Read more]

Thanks Ko Aung for sharing the ADKAR model of OpenMRS system.

Thanks Ma Wah for sharing another system!

Using the same HMIS (DHIS-2) of Myanmar Public Health;
1. Awareness: Many staff are used to paper-based reporting and lack understanding of DHIS2 benefits. Communication meetings, orientation, and demonstrations were needed to explain why the change wass ncessary emphasizing improved data-driven decision-making.

2. Desire: Resistance arose from…[Read more]

Thanks Ma Wah for your sharing.

Please give an example of a system in your organization (either successful or fail). What are main factors that make the system successful or failure (Data, Cost, Operation, Design, and People)?
I would like to analyse the HMIS (DHIS2) of government for partially successful factors.
Data : even though the coverage was not all, HMIS could cover…[Read more]

Thanks for your sharing Ma Wah for comprehensive Malaria Reporting Platform.

One example of the decision support system for almost all organization I worked for, is checklist marking scale of recruitment. When we recruit a candidate, we transparently use predefined checklist of position we want with marking scale and during interview, we add or substract marks according to candidate’s answers.
The factors influencing the…[Read more]