The E-health for HIV Service Delivery program has emerged as the winner of Makerere University School of Public Health —MakSPH’s innovation challenge focused on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The program outshone five other innovations to earn the coveted award.
Reach Out Mbuya Community Health Initiative —ROM, a community-based non-governmental organization working with urban and rural poor communities across six districts, won a prize of Shs.14.3 million to further develop their innovative solution implemented under the E-health for HIV Service Delivery program.
ROM implemented an electronic community health information system and the Uganda EMR mobile during the pandemic, enabling community-based surveillance and access to equitable health services. These eHealth solutions capture real-time data on community ART services, home-based care, TB screening, and more, enabling community health workers to provide remote patient support and data management. The panel of 13 multisectoral and multi-disciplinary members highly scored the E-health for HIV Service Delivery program based on these innovative solutions.
In November 2022, the Ministry of Health, TASO Uganda, and MakSPH, with funding from Global Fund, called for innovative designs from individuals and organizations, including community-based and civil society organizations, to ensure continuity of HIV, TB, or malaria health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda.
“The innovations were expected to take the form of new services, practices, processes, service delivery models, or technology, implemented between March 2020 and November 2022,” said Dr. Dinah Amongin, a health scientist and lecturer at MakSPH, who served as the Principal Investigator of the innovation documentation study. “They did not necessarily have to be scientific, but rather have social impacts, be people-centered, and target community people.”
