Rudo Saungweme
The Zimbabwe Health Situation room which was launched by the Minister of Health and Child Care on Friday will see the improvement of the use of the existing health information systems and make the digital health strategy a reality.
Minister of Health and Child Care, Honourable Obadiah Moyo said: "Zimbabwe Health Situation room is a perfect illustration on how we can, through good use of technology, improve the use of our existing information systems and make our e-health strategy a reality.
"It also demonstrates well the Government's commitment towards transparency and accountability to the public they serve," said the Minister. Minister Moyo said that the Zimbabwe situation room would help the Government to manage a multi-sectoral AIDS response.
"Zimbabwe Situation room will support Government and civil society institutions alike to effectively and efficiently manage a multi-sectoral AIDS response," said the Minister. He said the situation room had metamorphosed from HIV situation room to Zimbabwe situation room.
"I note with pleasure that the Zimbabwe situation room has metamorphosed from HIV situation room to Zimbabwe situation room.This indeed places Zimbabwe at a better position to track its progress towards its universal health coverage targets," he said.
Minister Moyo said that the launch marked the beginning of improved data use for policy formulation and decision making in responding to health challenges in the country through the official launch of the Health Zimbabwe situation room.
Honourable Minister said that despite the good progress that had been made in tackling the epidemic, Zimbabwe still needed innovations especially through technology that makes access and use of data simple.
The Health situation room consists of four components which are data integration layer, data warehouse, visualisation software and physical room which is optional. The HIV and Health situation room aims to help speed up and streamline communications between policy makers and implementers to help Zimbabwe stay on track to reach its national HIV and health targets as well as the Sustainable Development Goals.
