HMIS dissemination workshop

The Provincial AIDS Committee of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC PAC) successfully organized a one-day workshop on September 18, 2013 to disseminate information of its activity on integration of a health management information system (HMIS). The workshop gathered a variety of audiences including management at the national level, management and representatives of all departments of the HCMC PAC, representatives of facilities and donors including CDC, CHAI, FHI and SHAMSHA. 

Dr. Tieu Thi Thu Van giving opening keynotes

Both the director (Dr. Tieu Thi Thu Van) and vice director (Dr. Tran Thinh) of HCMC PAC once again reaffirmed the importance of applying electronic information systems to improve the quality of patient care. Dr. Vo Hai Son, deputy chief of the monitoring and evaluation department under the authority of AIDS control of Vietnam, also attended the workshop and gave a presentation on the strategic plan for application of HMIS nationwide.

During the workshop, four facilities volunteered to be the next sites for implementation of electronic medical records system after an experience-sharing presentation by one of the pilot sites. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Tam, chief of the monitoring and evaluation department under HCMC PAC, the upcoming roll-out will take place in late 2013 and early 2014.

A number of workshop materials attached.
1) Workshop agenda [download]
2) Workshop brochure [download]
3) System high-level architecture [download]
4) Presentation: Overview of the HMIS activity [download]
5) Presentation: M-Health pilot [download]
6) Presentation: Strategic plan for national HMIS in HIV/AIDS control program [download]
7) Presentation: Experiences sharing [download]

03 group training for MPI users carried out

HCMC - In preparation for rolling out of the electronic master patient index (e-MPI) to 24 VCT sites replacing the existing system, the provincial AIDS committee of Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC PAC) has worked with development partners (CHAI, I-TECH and CDC) and its software vendor to conduct 03 group training courses for the system users. The first course was carried out in Feb 2013 for VCT staff who will be using the system to register a newly confirmed HIV patient before he can join the care and treatment program; and the two later ones were on April 2nd and April 3rd - one for VCT staff (refreshing training) and one for OPC staff.

As VCT staff had been using the other e-MPI system since 2007 to register HIV confirmed patients, moving to using this new system is quite straightforward. Also, a lot of comments and feedback have been received  that helped make the system more user-friendly and complete. HCMC PAC plans to officially replace the existing e-MPI with this new version in May 2013.

Below are some pictures taken during and after the first training course.

In the training room

Trainees receiving certificate

Trainees receiving certificate (2)

Group photo after class

HCMC PAC joined national HMIS discussions

At the office of administration for HIV/AIDS control (VAAC), the department of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has been assigned to take lead on every HMIS activity which includes (but is not limited to) development of a national plan for implementation of electronic information system for HIV/AIDS control, and establishment and support for implementation of a national HIV ID system. The department will start the first activity with support of development partners (DPs) including CDC, CHAI, WHO, FHI... and take the e-Health project in HCMC as a pilot province. The second activity has been brought up to discussion by VAAC, HCMC PAC, CHAI, WHO, FHI and other DPs, and a national unique patient ID (HIV focused) is expected to be established this December.

Presentation about approaches for establishment of a national unique patient ID (with a focus on HIV patients) is available at http://goo.gl/OvoxU

In recent meeting to discuss the national unique patient ID, HCMC introduced its e-Health project to a broader audiences including VAAC and other DPs.Presentation to introduce the e-Health project  in HCMC is available at http://goo.gl/UnENN (in Vietnamese). English readers can find an earlier version at https://sites.google.com/site/hcmchis/updates.

HCMC PAC carries out procurement for HMIS (phase #2)

HCMC PAC - After the successful deployment for pilot (beta testing) of two software applications - the Core OPC/EMR and the Master Patient Index (MPI) - at District 1 and Thu Duc, the project team including contracting software vendors have been actively providing on-site support for end-users of these sites. In plan, the MPI system will be piloted in a larger scale at 18 additional VCT sites this December, while the advanced functions including reporting, clinical decision support, interoperability, and PMTCT will be continuously added to the OPC/EMR until 2013.

In order for this further development of the OPC/EMR, HCMC PAC will carry out a public procurement process, of which the plan is already approved by HCMC leaders, and contracts should be signed no later than December 10th. This procurement also includes development of technical requirements specifications for a drug management and quantification system.

First pictures at the conference (Photographer: Mr Quang)

First day came to our hostel

                                        
                                           Name sign on the old door

                                          
                                           Air conditioner from 10 years ago
                                         
The second day at the conference

                                          Welcome day

                                           Long talked at the conference

                                            Bill style

Vietnam joining OpenMRS conference in Philippines

There will be a one-week conference taking place in Silang, Philippines from October 09 - 12, 2012 where OpenMRS developers and implementer from around the globe come and share experiences applying the EMR software in their countries. In Vietnam, OpenMRS was customized and localized for use as an EMR at HIV/AIDS outpatient clinics (OPC). Development partners including CDC, I-TECH and CHAI have been working  with the provincial AIDS committee of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC PAC) since mid of 2011 in an effort to implement the system for OPCs in the city, and will join the conference.

Participants from Vietnam includes the I-TECH's local HMIS coordinator (Mr. Pham Viet Long), and an IT staff of the HCMC PAC (Mr. Bui Lieu Phuoc Quang). Long and Quang will work with Dr. Bill Lober (I-TECH) on a presentation introducing the HMIS integration project for HCMC, Vietnam, and the technical solutions for electronic data exchange between OpenMRS and other technology including .NET, using MirthConnect.

Information about the conference can be found in the links below.

1) Ideas for conference sessions: http://goo.gl/Tx8bQ
2) Tentative conference schedules: https://wiki.openmrs.org/display/RES/OMRS12+Daily+Schedule
3) Plan for I-TECH, Vietnam and Kenya in joining the conference: http://goo.gl/Ieqtj

Updates on October 9, 2012: Presentation for Vietnam's delegation available at http://goo.gl/5XB6x.

Updates on October 10, 2012: Notes during the presentation session: http://notes.openmrs.org/upgradelessons2012

-- Outcomes of the conference will be posted soon.

MPI and OPC/EMR successfully deployed for pilot

HCMC PAC - During the week of September 17, two software development partners of the HIS project in Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC) successfully deployed the master patient index system (MPI) and the electronic medical record (EMR) management system at one HIV voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) site and one HIV outpatient clinic (OPC), both in district 1, HCMC.

This was done right after the HIS technical support trip of I-TECH, CHAI and CDC to HCMC to assist in reviewing the implementation plan and the next steps of software development. A two-day training course was also planned and conducted for system end-users who are VCT staff, OPC doctors, nurses and administrative staff in order to use the systems during pilot period.

According to project plan, there would be two sites for each program joining the pilot including those in Thu Duc district and District 1, both are in HCMC, but the system deployment in Thu Duc district will not be happening until the week of September 24 - 28, though system end users were already trained the week before. One thing worth mentioning is these two districts were voluntary to be pilot sites and have joined as key system end-users to share domain expertise and experiences during system design and development. Training materials were drafted by software vendors including presentations, system use scenarios, and user manuals, carefully reviewed by PAC, CDC and I-TECH experts, and then instructions were provided onsite in the real system just deployed. First impression to say was users who joined the training seemed very excited and found the system functions easy enough to use.

The pilot of MPI will be taking one and a half month before the system is rolled out to the other 18 VCT sites in the city, and the OPC/EMR will be continuously piloted until March 2013 when all software functions are completed and tested before rolling out to additional provinces.

Additional Information

"MPI - the master patient index system is implemented with an aim to manage demographics and identification information of all HIV patients enrolling into care and treatment. This will help maintain a registry of HIV patients linked with other information systems to support for the continuity of care for the patients. Currently, the MPI has been successfully linked with the OPC/EMR for exchange of demographics, identification, and the treatment summary information. Bio-metric technology (fingerprint) is used to ensure uniqueness of patient records in the system.

OPC/EMR - the electronic medical record system that will be used at point of care to manage both adult and pediatric HIV patients at outpatient clinics and other programs including PMTCT. Development of this robust system was divided into 2 phases, of which phase 1 has been completed and deployed for pilot with basic functions to manage patient demographics and clinical information, patient referrals/transfer, clinical orders and a number of linkages for data exchange, and phase 2 will be carried out this October focusing on implementation of reporting functions, clinical decision supports and specific functions for PMTCT and pediatric."

-----
For further information regarding the HIS integration project in HCMC, and specifically the pilot of MPI and OPC/EMR, please contact.

1) Pham Viet Long, technical coordinator, I-TECH (phamvietlong@itech-vietnam.org)
2) Nguyen Van Tam, M&E chief, HCMC PAC (thaytam@yahoo.com)
3) Nguyen Tuan Anh, applications development manager, CDC (nguyenat@vn.cdc.gov)