E-Health Systems Integration and Partnership Specialist

FHI 360/Philippines (www.fhi360.org) is looking for a consultant under a short-term work engagement status for USAID’s TB Innovations and Health Systems Strengthening project in the Philippines as E-Health Systems Integration and Partnership Specialist.

Overview

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the major public health issues in the country, making the Philippines first in Southeast Asia and fourth highest globally in terms of incident TB cases according to the 2021 WHO Global TB Report; hence, the Philippines committed to find and treat 2.5 million cases by 2022 at the UN High Level Meeting in 2018 and developed the Philippine Strategic TB Elimination Plan Phase 1 (PhilSTEP1) 2018-2023.

FHI360 is currently managing a five-year project (2018-2023) known as “TB Innovations and Health Systems Strengthening (TBIHSS), supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and designed to assist the Department of Health (DOH) and other relevant sectors to actively identify, develop, test, and scale up innovative technologies and dynamic, strategic and cutting-edge approaches across the TB continuum of care to maximize programmatic outcomes, strengthen health processes and systems to accelerate the fight against TB and achieve country and global TB elimination targets in 2035;

One of the key strategies and activities of TBIHSS, is to support the DOH’s mandate for mandatory TB notification under Republic Act No. 10767 known as “An Act Establishing a Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Plan Act”, directing all public and private health centers, hospitals and facilities to observe the national protocol on TB management and notification as prescribed in its Manual of Procedures ; consistent with the overall framework to report public health diseases to inform relevant health systems, monitor progress and identify system support needed to eliminate these diseases, through e-health, meaningful engagement of relevant stakeholders in public and private sectors, and specifically develop a country ICT roadmap for TB aligned towards enabling and supportive systems supporting universal health care (UHC).

The Integrated TB information System (ITIS) is the DOH’s national web-based system and tool for data collection, processing and reporting of TB diagnosis, treatment initiation and treatment outcome developed through the Knowledge Management and Information Technology Service (KMITS) to inform progress of TB elimination efforts in the country.

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, most physicians and facilities have shifted, if not mainstream telemedicine platforms in their current clinical practice and hospital services. To increase TB case notification from this sector, the United States Agency for International Development’s TB Innovations and Health Systems Strengthening (TBIHSS) Project in collaboration with the National Telehealth Center is assisting the DOH in engaging Telehealth Service Providers for the development of a universal Application Programming Interface (API) to facilitate automated TB case notification with the Integrated Tuberculosis Information System (ITIS). Reporting to the Deputy Chief of Party and Private Sector Advisor, the E-Health Systems Integration and Partnership Specialist is responsible to perform the following tasks:

1. Attend FHI’s administrative, finance and procurement orientation.

2. Convene to form and engage a network of Telehealth and E-health Service Providers to promote and implement the use of HL7 FHIR as a means of automating TB notification to the DOH.

3. Provide technical inputs in all data integration activities, assessment tools, data sharing protocols and agreements, overall framework to test, roll-out, secure necessary approvals to facilitate and promote automated notification processes with ITIS and ITIS Lite, in close coordination with relevant

government and private stakeholders.

1. Provide technical inputs in the development of the application programming interface (API) using the standard Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) in describing data formats and elements for exchanging electronic health records according to the Health Level Seven (HL7) international healthcare standards between ITIS (and ITIS Lite) and Tele-medicine and/or electronic medical records (EMR) platforms at facility and/or physician levels.

2. Establish a system for merits or credits to future training sessions or workshops to participating Telehealth Service Providers through certification or credentials with e-Learning materials co-developed by USAID’s TBIHSS with relevant partners.

3. Co-host, maintain and curate online training materials together with identified relevant government partner (like DICT).

Education/Required Job Experience/Skills

· Degree in Medical Informatics / Public Health Informatics or related course

· Preferably with Master’s in Health Care Facilities Administration/Management or related course

· 3-5 years working in FHIR API Systems Integration or any relevant field.

· HL7 (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) API Systems Integration and Automation

· Data Protection and Privacy

· eHealth and e-Learning Platforms

· Telemedicine and Electronic Medical Records (EMR)

· Monitoring and Evaluation

Work Location/Assignment

Manila, Philippines

Target Engagement Period

ASAP– September 30, 2022 (45 Days LOE)