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This HI4DEV Framework is 5 pages long and should be downloaded for
easier reading. It is available on other formats on request.
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Health Informatics for Development
HI4DEV
Sam Lanfranco <[log in to unmask]>
Distributed Knowledge Project
<[log in to unmask]>
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For the Registration Application or Overview paper: email
<[log in to unmask]> and ask for HI4DEV.APP and HI4DEV.OVR
------------------------------------------------------
This document provides a common framework for the HI4DEV online
conference and the Feb 28-Mar 2 HI4DEV workshop at Founders
College, York University. For the online conference and the York
Workshop Health Informatics is defined as follows:
Information and communication technology (ICT) applied to
the achievement of sustainable efficiency and effectiveness
in population (and personal) health.
The HI4DEV Workshop, within a work agenda for health informatics in
development, is AIMED AT PROMOTING:
1. BETTER FOCUS for the interests and activities of the Canadian
university community, and other Canadian groups, working on health in
development.
2. BETTER COLLABORATION in initiatives involving health informatics and
development, both within Canada and with the global community working on
health in development.
3. STRENGTHENED CAPACITY for funding agencies and policy makers to (a)
make policies, (b) evaluate projects, and (c) provide the appropriate
support for incorporating ICT into projects involving health in
development.
The HI4DEV Workshop also has two SPECIFIC DELIVERABLES:
1. Helping the Canadian University Consortium on Health in Development
(CUCHID) to formulate a 'health informatics for development' strategy as a
component of Canada's future efforts in HI4DEV.
2. Producing MULTI-MEDIA WORKSHOP AND TRAINING MATERIALS for use in
similar Workshops elsewhere in Canada and abroad.
HEALTH INFORMATICS IS A BROAD AND VAGUELY DEFINED AREA. It includes a vast
range of technologies, applied across a wide range of health problems and
health and development initiatives.
One task of the workshop is to help experts, practitioners, and other
stakeholders develop a better sense of the relationship between their work
and the opportunities and risks flowing from the new technologies.
To give a structure to the Workshop, and to enhance its 'deliverables', a
conceptual framework will be used to give some structure to the
relationship between health objectives in development, and the role of ICT
as appropriate technology.
The framework is sketched out below. It is not necessary to understand the
framework or to even situate one's work, skills or interests within it.
The framework is used by the conference facilitators to help structure the
inputs, processes, and outputs of the workshop.
A COMMON FRAMEWORK:
This background document presents a common framework. It will be used to
help locate participants, issues, and technologies within the broad field
of health informatics in development. It is applicable to a broad range of
entities (agencies, projects, persons) involved with health in
development.
The framework views ICT as creating an electronic venue (virtual
workspace) which combines with, transforms and extends literal techniques,
institutions and approaches to health in development.
The framework is suitable for policy or program formation, for research,
training and education, for project management and evaluation, and for
strategies empowering communities and persons to address their own health.
Here it is used to structure thinking about HI4DEV in the online workshop
and for the York University workshop participants.
THE ENTITY IN THE ELECTRONIC VENUE
Entities, policies or projects(EPP)carry out their mission and interests
within (across) one or more of the following activity quadrants: (a)
administration, (b)research and learning, (c) product/service delivery,
and (d)communications.
The EPP Activity Quadrants
|---------------------------------------------------|
| (a) Administrative |(b)Research and Learning |
| Activities | Activities |
|-------------------------|-------------------------|
| (c) Product/Service | (d) Communications |
| Delivery Activities | Activities | Internal |
|-------------------------| To R.O.W. | From R.O.W. |
|-------------------------|
\[R.O.W. = Rest Of World]/
The framework views the electronic venue as a virtual workspace with three
activity domains:(1) electronic mail, (2) group work facilities, and (3)
text, data, audio/video stored as electronic 'objects'.
The virtual workspace is presented below with each of these electronic
domains depicted as one of three concentric areas of electronic
application, each operating across the EPP's four activity quadrants.
THE VIRTUAL WORKSPACE
Administration Research & Learning
|---------------------------------------------------|
| Electronic Objects | Electronic Objects |
| (Admin) (1) (Rsch&Learn) |
| |-----------------|---------------| |
| | | | |
| | GroupWork (2) GroupWork | |
| | (Admin) | (Rsch&Learn) | |
| | |-------|-------| | |
| | | (3) | | |
|------------------- EMAIL -----------------|
| | | \ | |
| | |-------|----\ \ | |
| | | \ \ | |
| | GroupWork | GroupWork \ | |
| | (Prod&Serv) | (Comm) \
| |-----------------|--------\ Electronic |
| Electronic Objects | \ Objects |
| (Prod&Serv) | \ (Comm) |
|--------------------------------------\ \|
Products and Services Communications to R.O.W. \
\from R.O.W.\
The online and York workshops will use the three following checklists as a
basis for organizing issues, questions and approaches.
The checklists work for any level of EPP involvement in health and with
any proposed HI technology. The objectives, constraints and technology
being examined will frame the actual questions about HI4DEV for any
particular EPP.
The three checklists operate at different levels of aggregation. The
first focuses on the entity, policy or project(EPP). The second
encompasses stakeholders, peer groups and targets (SPT), situating the EPP
within a wider macro context. The third, at the component level of
examination (CLE), deals with efficiency, effectiveness and capacity
building within the EPP.
The EPP level focuses on how HI4DEV contributes directly to
mission and objectives.
The SPT level situates the EPP as one activity within a
wider macro context.
The CLE level uses a more traditional approach, looking at
HI4DEV in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and capacity
building inside the EPP.
A lot of 'popular' interest in health informatics is focused on CLE, such
as the uses of ICT in hospital records or remote image delivery. The
framework used here puts such activities in their respective categories
and in perspective in terms of overall HI4DEV objectives.
While the math suggests a list of 90 checklist items, most tasks involve
only parts of the checklist.
As part of the moderation of HI4DEV, the checklist headings (e.g. EPP1a,
SPT2e, CLE3f, etc.) will be used as labels to help structure the flow.
Participants are free to use or not use them. The moderators will make
use of them to help organize the discussion.
THE EPP CHECKLIST:
EPP1. How is (can) the Email domain (be) used for:
a. pursuit of EPP health objectives and mission
b. EPP funding, accountability, and transparency
c. EPP communications with closely linked stakeholders
d. EPP communications with local peer groups
e. EPP communications with remote peer groups
EPP2. How is (can) the Group Work domain (be) used for:
a. pursuit of EPP health objectives and mission
b. EPP funding, accountability, sustainability and
transparency
c. EPP working with closely linked stakeholders
d. EPP working with local peer groups
e. EPP working with remote peer groups
EPP3. How is (can) the Digital Object domain (be) used in:
a. the pursuit of EPP health objectives and mission
b. EPP funding, accountability, and transparency
c. EPP working with closely linked stakeholders
d. EPP working with local peer groups
e. EPP working with remote peer groups
THE SPT CHECKLIST:
ICT in health activities also relate to other stakeholders, peer
groups and targets (SPT) at a more macro level. The EPP
checklist asks how HI4DEV brings added value to each party.
The SPT checklist looks at how HI4DEV contributes to the
achievement of broad health and non-health development
objectives.
SPT1. How is (can) the email domain (be) used for:
a. the SPT pursuit of health and development objectives
b. SPT global funding, accountability, and transparency
c. SPT communication with (non-health) stakeholders
d. SPT communication with local (non-health) peer groups
e. SPT communication with remote (non-health) peer groups
SPT2. How is (can) the Group Work domain (be) used for:
a. the SPT pursuit of health and development objectives
b. SPT global funding, accountability, and transparency
c. SPT working with (non-health) stakeholders
d. SPT working with local (non-health) peer groups
e. SPT working with remote (non-health) peer groups
SPT3. How is (can) the Digital Object domain (be) used in:
a. the SPT pursuit of health and development objectives
b. SPT global funding, accountability, and transparency
c. SPT working with (non-health) stakeholders
d. SPT working with local (non-health) peer groups
e. SPT working with remote (non-health) peer groups
THE CLXx CHECKLIST: ("X" stands for the relevant quadrant)
The four quadrant diagram (above) generates the following checklist with
regard to each activity domain. This level is close to a conventional
efficiency, effectiveness, and capacity building approach.
Applying the CLXx checklist to each quadrant in the electronic workspace,
could generate a maximum of 60 questions. In practice a only a subset of
those are relevant for a particular EPP. For each of the four quadrents:
A. Administrative quadrant
B. Research/Learning quadrant
C. Product/Service quadrant
D. Communications quadrant
CLA1: How is (can) the Email domain (be) used for
communications with(in):
a. the administrative quadrant
b. the product/service quadrant
c. the research/learning quadrant
d. the access to remote sites
e. the access from remote sites
CLA2: How is (can) the Group Work domain (be) used for work
groups with(in) :
a. the administrative quadrant
b. the product/service quadrant
c. the research/learning quadrant
d. local EPP participation in remote work group
e. remote access to local work groups in the EPP
CLA3: How is the Digital Object domain used by the work of:
a. the administrative quadrant
b. the product/service quadrant
c. the research/learning quadrant
d. local participants accessing remote object sites
e. remote sites accessing local EPP digital objects
These three checklists are repeated with respect to CLBx, CLCx
and CLDx.
------------------------------------------------------
For the Registration Application or Overview paper: email
<[log in to unmask]> and ask for HI4DEV.APP and HI4DEV.OVR
------------------------------------------------------
|
