Country Experience Documentation on Digital Health Convergence Workshops
Digital Health Convergence Workshop in Sri Lanka 2022
Sustaining Digital Health Governance: Consolidating Recommendations for IT Governance, Information Governance, and Data Governance in Sri Lanka
Background of Digital Health in the Country
Digital Health Human Resources
Development of digital health human resources
Mid 1800s
Formation of Foundation of Sri Lanka’s current health system
2009
The inception of MSc course in Bio-Medical Informatics (BMI)
2017
Commencement of the MD in Health Informatics program
2021
Sri Lanka College of Health Informatics was established as the apex body representing the country's health informatics professionals
Digital Health Strategy and Governance
The strategic plan for digital health in Sri Lanka began with the establishment of the National eHealth Steering Committee at the Ministry of Health Sri Lanka. The committee developed the following documents related to governance:
2017
National Policy on Health Information and Strategic Plan
2021
National eHealth Standards and Guidelines version 2.1
2022
Sri Lanka Digital Health Blueprint v1.0
Note: Report included in this section is only valid until the time the digital health convergence workshop was conducted in December 2022.
Workshop Implementation
Objectives
Data Governance
- Build consensus on Health Data Governance principles to be adapted to the Sri Lankan healthcare sector
- Initiate a data governance framework
IT Governance
- Identify key elements of the IT governance roadmap
Information Governance
- Introduce concept of information governance
- Develop a roadmap for information governance implementation
Methodology
1
Request
Letter of request for digital health convergence workshop support
2
Coordination
Formation of core team:
- Ministry of Health (MoH)
- Sri Lanka College of Health Informatics (SLCHI
- Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka (HISSL)
- Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN)
3
Planning and Preparation
- Program planning
- Invitation to stakeholders
- Event logistics
4
Implementation
Discussion points: Digital health governance frameworks, Data Governance, IT Governance, Information Governance
5
Follow up
Sharing of workshop findings with the broader MoH hierarchy
Output
- Build a data governance team
- Establish policies and standards
- Define and communicate a vision effectively
- Develop clear data processes
- Incorporate right technological solutions
- Set up data controls and track progress
- Constantly adapt the data governance framework
- Establishment of an information governance committee.
- Initiate maturity assessment and staff awareness program.
- Identify information governance activities (short term, mid-term, and long term).
- People
- Identify the stakeholders and leadership.
- Form groups that will plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate the IT governance at each
level of healthcare delivery.
- Processes
- Comprehensive and granular-level processes should be identified.
- IT strategy should be mapped to support the processes identified above.
- Communication workflow should be defined incorporating vertical and horizontal organizational structure.
- Infrastructure
- The connectivity and IT service availability should be identified according to the servi
delivery levels. - Cost-effectiveness should be considered.
- Future and current technology should be reviewed by the governance group.
- Reusability of software and reallocation of hardware (e.g., global digital goods and
open-source software) should be specified.
- The connectivity and IT service availability should be identified according to the servi
- Cross-cutting Components
- Security and risk management should be considered an integral part of the IT
implementation – security by design. - Health staff's lack of information security awareness is the main risk factor for health data
security breaches. - Performance measurement – define KPIs to identify the performance of IT-relat
investments. - Capacity building – continuous capacity building should be an integral part of the IT
governance plan. - A tested and proven framework should be used to implement IT governance
- Implementation is a long journey, and discipline and continuous leadership are inevitable.
- Security and risk management should be considered an integral part of the IT
Key Insights
Emerging Good Practices
Ongoing development of the Digital Governance Plan
- Intended to be the overarching guide for setting up the digital health governance structure in the country, incorporating three aspects discussed in the workshop: data governance, IT governance, and information governance
Advocating the Digital Health Blueprint
- Awareness building among stakeholders
- Aligning systems with the blueprint to ensure interoperability with the digital health ecosystem
Conducting Connectathons
- Avenue for collective learning and re-orienting service providers on the procurement requirements for health information systems
- Promoting peer learning and collaboration between the government and private sectors
Emerging Needs
Complying with the personal data protection legislation
- Alignment with Sri Lanka's Personal Data Protection Act No. 9 of 2022 (PDPA), especially on restrictions for cloud services
Mitigating risks in digital health governance from changing leadership
- Entails re-orientation of new leaders to the national eHealth steering committee objectives
- Set up a separate committee headed by the Director General of Health Services, a stable position at the MoH
Donor alignment with the Digital Health Blueprint
- Align donor initiatives with overall digital health strategy for continuity of efforts and resources
- Coordination of all MoH units with the Health Information Unit for digital health initiatives (government-funded and donor-funded)
Onboarding the private sector in the Digital Governance Plan
- Coordination mechanism is needed to include the private sector in the digital health ecosystem
Fostering trust in data sharing
- Develop a digital governance plan to build trust and data-sharing culture among institutions
Development of detailed guidance for the Digital Health Blueprint
- Provide additional and more detailed guidance for blueprint implementation: code systems, value sets, concept maps, different workflows
Capacity-building for the Digital Health Blueprint
- Identified priority areas for training (basic IT, system-related training, data privacy, data security, medical analytics)
- More professionals to support the blueprint implementation within the current grant timeline
- External collaborators to facilitate training for MOH, identify training gaps, and set up curriculum
Get Involved
We request representatives from a country's government agency and development partners to answer the form below for any digital health convergence workshop-related inquiries and requests.