Reposted from OpenLMIS
The latest release of the OpenLMIS software, version 3.5, is a major accomplishment for the Initiative and a milestone for public health supply chain stakeholders globally. 3.5 is the sixth major release since the re architecture and represents how implementers continue to obtain value from the community.
Read full storyReposted from OpenLMIS
OpenLMIS is a global initiative to support the development of shareable, interoperable, open-source software for electronic logistics management information systems. The OpenLMIS initiative’s mission is to make a powerful Logistics Management Information System (LMIS) available in low-resource environments – providing high-quality logistics management to improve health commodity distribution in low- and middle-income countries.
The OpenLMIS community is very pleased to announce the release of version 3.4 of the OpenLMIS software. Version 3.4 incorporates a variety of new features and enhancements:
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Benat Kalebe is a pharmacy technician at Ntchisi District Hospital, Malawi.
On any given day, you may find Benat Kalebe organizing his storeroom or dispensing medicines at the Ntchisi District Hospital. He may be working in the hospital’s different wards, providing support for the nurses and doctors while keeping a close eye on the stock levels of the medicines they use. But Benat is more than the hospital’s pharmacy technician. He is a conduit for life-saving medicines for 16 health facilities throughout Ntchisi District in Malawi.
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I had the privilege of meeting Ruphin Ndumbala on my recent visit to Equateur province, DRC. Ruphin is one of the many frontline health workers who go above and beyond to ensure vaccines reach every last child. Recently, he made a promise, and I was honored enough to see him deliver.
“I used to spend at least two days’ roundtrip to collect vaccines.” Ruphin spoke outside of his clinic in rural Equateur province. “It was a big concern for my family that I was leaving behind, but also for the patients I was leaving unattended.”
Read full storyStories coming from Lolanga-Mampoko district in Equateur province often focus on the challenges communities face in accessing health care. I see these challenges every day and work with partners to help communities overcome them. But not all of our stories are about challenges. For this African Vaccination Week, we are celebrating what we have achieved over the past year.
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OpenLMIS was well-represented at the TechNet-21 Conference including this poster on the new vaccine-specific functionality.
OpenLMIS is a community dedicated to collective impact. We are always learning and listening for new ideas. We organize user-centered design workshops, talk with global leaders, and incorporate best-in-class technologies to meet the needs of global health supply chains. The most recent TechNet-21 Conference provided yet another opportunity to hear more from our partners in the immunization sector.
Read full storyWorld Immunization Week is a perfect time to reflect on global priorities and our commitment to the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP). This framework guides the work of organizations around the world to reach every child with life-saving vaccines. It is also a way to measure our collective success. Accurately measuring our progress against GVAP targets is central to moving the needle globally, but we need to be confident in the data.
I recently heard a ministry official summarize the challenges to increasing immunization in an area suspected to have a high number of unimmunized children. This was very different from the story told by the numbers. The administrative coverage rates (based on census numbers and the reported number of administered vaccine doses) for the region were well over 100%. Surveys designed to provide a baseline comparison in the same area reported lower numbers, but the data still showed surprisingly high coverage – above 80%. People at this meeting quickly said they were ‘tired’ of hearing about coverage rates because of the well-known data quality issues. This frustration with data quality has echoed at nearly every immunization stakeholder meeting I’ve attended. Clearly inaccurate data is less meaningful – and less useful. It could be worse than no data at all.
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Reposted from OpenLMIS
The release of OpenLMIS version 3 is truly something to celebrate – it is the result of an extraordinary collaboration of organizations and individuals around the world.
Teams from multiple countries contributed technical requirements, defined business processes, and wrote countless hours of code for the latest iteration of OpenLMIS, a powerful, enterprise class logistics management information system (LMIS).
The OpenLMIS Initiative’s mission is to make a high quality, powerful LMIS software available in low-resource environments – providing high-quality logistics management to improve health commodity distribution in low- and middle-income countries. OpenLMIS increases data visibility, helping supply chain managers identify and respond to commodity needs, particularly at health facilities where lack of data significantly impacts the availability of key medicines and vaccines.
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Dr. Chan and me on the University of Washington Campus
One of the highlights of University of Washington’s symposium celebrating ten years in global health was seeing the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan. Dr. Chan was charming as ever, with a spring in her step and a smile on her face. Perhaps it is because she is nearing the end of her term (her successor will be chosen during the upcoming World Health Assembly) that despite moments of levity, her words had a more sobering ring.
Dr. Chan painted a complex picture of the world in which global health professionals work. We are confronting new diseases and old diseases, dealing with post-antibiotics and post-truth. She warned the attendees that some believe a long-standing social contract has been broken and “we are now living in a world that has lost its moral compass”. Before we could wallow in our collective struggle, Dr. Chan laid out four priorities to help guide health policies and programs. Here’s what they mean for our work at VillageReach.
Read full storyWith the endorsement of the Addis Declaration on Immunisation, African leaders demonstrated their commitment to life-saving immunizations. The Declaration names a number of components – ten, in fact – crucial to realizing the full benefits of immunization. But there are many more pieces in the day-to-day work of getting vaccines to children. These are the pieces I think about as I do my part in reaching global vaccine goals.
Depending on the day, I’m thinking about things like this:
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