The World Health Organization (WHO) has praised Sierra Leone for leading the way in electronic health reporting in Africa.
Sierra Leone on Friday became the first country in Africa to fully transform its disease surveillance system from paper-based to web-based electronic platform.
This means that from June 6, electronic reporting of disease surveillance data is active in all the over 1, 300 public health facilities across the country.
“Transitioning disease surveillance data reporting from the traditional old style paper-based format to a computerized format using an advanced technology is ground-breaking for Sierra Leone and we are very proud of being a pivotal part of this great achievement – from its conception to planning and full implementation,” Dr Evans Liyosi, Country Representative for WHO, said in a statement.
He added that the development represented a “huge success story” of partnership and urged other African countries to follow suit.
“Partners worked together to support the country to achieve this goal. Other countries in the region have a lot to learn from our collaboration and our experience,” the WHO rep said as part of a ceremony held in the northern Tonkolili district which marked the end of training for the last batch of trainees from health facilities.
The electronic reporting allows health facility staff to use hand-held tablets developed for the purposes of reporting health data.
WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provided financial and technical support, while the technology firm e-Health Africa developed the digital tools.
The initiative is part of efforts to improve on Sierra Leone’s Disease Surveillance system and make it ready to respond appropriately to emergencies, officials said.
With this new technology, reporting, monitoring and evaluation are done in real time, which officials say will allow the relevant authorities to act rapidly in the event of any reported case of a potential emergency outbreak.
KC/as/APA