IDASH Fellowship Launches in South America

Posted on June 20, 2024October 8, 2024

The IDASH South America fellowship cohort

On June 17, the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) South America Office, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Peru (MINSA), launched the Informatics and Data Science for Health (IDASH) fellowship in South America. The program was first implemented in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia with support from WHO EURO, with the first cohort graduating in April 2024, and adapted to the South American context.

The 12-month training will focus on developing a health workforce that is well-trained in digital health and understands health informatics and data system requirements to support public health functions. Thirty-four fellows from government agencies from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru are together in Lima, Peru, for two weeks for the first in-person workshop.

During the opening ceremony, Peru’s Vice Minister of Health Ricardo Peña Sánchez and Secretary of Government and Digital Transformation César Vílchez Inga reaffirmed the importance of this initiative to support advancing digital strategies for health in Peru, including interoperability of information systems. The development of a skilled workforce in health informatics and data science is also aligned with the Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) efforts to advance digital health in the region, as highlighted by Sebastian García, Director of the Evidence and Intelligence for Health Action Department of PAHO (EIH/PAHO) during the opening.

During the second week of the in-person workshop, fellows will be joined by mentors from each participating country. The support from experienced mentors will enhance their learning experience and the application of the knowledge and skills acquired during the program.

Valdirene Montalvão, Information Systems Technician at the Brazilian Ministry of Health, has high expectations for her participation in the program. Through IDASH, “I will be able to learn and expand my skills to contribute more effectively to the process of monitoring, managing and evaluating for public health decision-making,” she says.

INSIGHT Project: Strengthening Public Health Disease Surveillance

Alex Greninger Global Health Security Julianne Meisner One Health Peru Peter Rabinowitz Surveillance Ukraine

Posted on June 1, 2023July 10, 2024

The Integrated Next-generation Surveillance in Global Health: Translation to Action (INSIGHT to Action) project is a five-year cooperative agreement with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess and strengthen global public health surveillance systems using a One Health approach. The INSIGHT project leverages the capacity building strengths of I-TECH and the One Health disease surveillance expertise of the Center for One Health Research, with a model of engaging local institutions and experts in countries where it will be working in a shared partnership model.

In its first year, the INSIGHT project focused on an in depth assessment of the public health surveillance systems in Peru, in partnership with experts from University of Peru Cayetano Heredia. The completed assessment has now catalyzed the formation of a technical working group with representation across multiple government agencies that will work with other stakeholders including the World Bank at implementing measures to strengthen regional and country capacity to detect, respond to, control, and prevent emerging disease threats to health security.

The INSIGHT surveillance work in Latin America is also now expanding to involve Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia.

IDASH TRAINING PROGRAM

In 2023, the INSIGHT program launched the Informatics and Data Science for Health (IDASH) training program in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The goals of IDASH are to enhance capacity to create and use public health information systems that enable the capture, management, analysis, dissemination, and use of reliable, timely information to improve population-level health outcomes, as well as strengthen regional capacity to effectively respond to future global health challenges.

UKRAINE RECOVERY

Building on lessons learned from the Peru assessment work, the INSIGHT team is now working with the Ukraine Public Health Center on expanding sentinel and event based surveillance systems in Ukraine and strengthening the capacity of the public health system for emergency management of chemical biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. The INSIGHT team has organized a workshop in Poland bringing together key principals from the Ukraine ministry of health and local health departments to accelerate the pace of activities in support of public health in the country. INSIGHT is coordinating technical working groups on Early Warning and Response, Public Health Emergency Management, and Surveillance strengthening.

UW Alumna Patricia Garcia Sworn In as Peruvian MOH

Peru

Posted on August 3, 2016May 1, 2017

On July 28, Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski swore in the country’s new Minister of Health: Dr. Patricia García, alumna of the University of Washington School of Public Health (MPH 1998, Epidemiology). Dr. García is an Affiliate Professor at UW’s Department of Global Health and was Vice Dean of research at the School of Public Health at Cayetano Heredia University, where she received her doctorate and PhD in medicine.

Among her list of credits, she also served as a member of the External Advisory Board of the UW’s Department of Global Health and was the first woman to chair the Peruvian National Institute of Health.

Read more about her career at the UW School of Public Health website.

Congratulations on this outstanding achievement, Dr. García!