Kenya launches data centers to improve disease surveillance

The Kenyan government on Wednesday launched five health data centers with the objective of speeding information to save lives. The centers launched in partnership with Hewlett Packard (HP) is set to improve the quality and efficiency of disease surveillance to enhance protection and prevention by making processes such as HIV testing fast and easy. Swift communication, once disease is detected will ensure quick administering of treatment. Kenya's Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation Mark Bor said the data center will also be a Disaster Recovery installation for other key installations within the Ministries of Health as well as other departments/ministries of government. "This data center is unprecedented in the history of the Health Ministry and represents the biggest investment in IT to date. At the moment, it houses key routing infrastructure for the country's integrated finance management information systems (IFMIS) which is run by the Ministry of Finance," Bor told journalists in Nairobi. He added that the launch of the data center was a significant step towards modernizing functions in the sector in a bid to ameliorate disease management and alleviate barriers that frustrate developmental efforts. Together with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and the Ministry of Pubic Health, HP's Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) project will dramatically improve testing and treatment for more than 120,000 infants exposed to HIV in Kenya each year. Through the EID project, HP will set up five data centers connected to four existing laboratories. Each data center will include the computing and storage power to connect more than 1,500 health facilities and 20,000 healthcare workers. "As technology improves, so does the quality of life therefore the ministry is willing to embrace technological advancements that will help improve the health sector," Bor said. Managing Director HP East Africa Ken Mbwaya said HP is providing technology that will shorten the turnaround for HIV test results to just two or three days which is a huge improvement that has the potential to save thousands of lives. "The data center will facilitate provision of life-saving care to infants accelerating access to life-saving technologies and helping the government build the capacity required for high- quality care and treatment programs," Mbwaya said. The data center is to host manual processes including the DHIS (District Health Information System) which allows the government to evaluate the performance of the public health system on issues such as vaccination coverage and mortality under five among other millennium developmental goals as they relate to health. Others include HRIS (Human Resources Information System), EMRs (Electronic Medical Records), the Health Sector Commodity Management among others. The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), was founded in 2002 by President William J. Clinton, and is a global health organization committed to strengthening integrated health systems around the world and expanding access to care and treatment for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other illnesses. The equipment makes HIV testing quick and simple. Each blood sample gets a barcode, and once it's tested, the results are recorded in a database created by software developers from Kenya's Strathmore University. Instead of waiting for results to arrive by courier, doctors receive results via a text message sent to SMS/GSM-enabled HP printers located throughout rural areas. Results can arrive in just a few days, which means infants can receive lifesaving treatment in good time.