Philippines delegation welcomes JLN colleagues to IT Asia core working group meeting
The Philippines JLN delegation welcomed colleagues from India, Indonesia and Malaysia to the Information Technology (IT) Track’s Asia core working group meeting, which began today in Manila. This core working group meeting kicks off the second phase of work for the JLN IT Track and is focused on understanding current and future needs around small payment collections as well as developing a working web based version of the Health Data Dictionary—Open HDD or Common Requirements for information technology systems.
“Common requirements are the language we use to communicate between the people that create software and the people that need software,” says David Lubinski, IT Track lead and Senior Advisor for Health Management Information Systems at PATH. The work in Manila builds upon phase one of the IT Track in which JLN member countries developed a shared initial requirements and the HDD prototyper tool. The IT Track hopes that the final set of Common Requirements will serve as a foundation for countries to build from within their unique country context.
“We could do this individually,” says Kate Wilson, Program Officer at PATH, “but if we work together we can develop something we can share.”
By the end of the workshop, participants should have collaboratively achieved the following objectives: • Develop functional requirements for small payment collection, including premiums. • Develop the first modules of the Health Data Dictionary Prototyper Tool focused on electronic claims forms. • Learn more about the state of PhilHealth’s ongoing information communication technology improvements and practices.
The Asian core working group will remain in Manila until April 19th and a second core working group of JLN member countries from Africa will take place from June 18-22, 2012, in Nairobi, Kenya. Participants in the second meeting will build upon, and refine the tools that are developed in Manila.