Anteneh Tsegaye – National Data Management Center for Health

NDMC Camps for Scientific Writing

April 4, 2022Anteneh Tsegaye Front Page News

The National Data Management Centre for Health hosted a mentor-based training on scientific writing from the 28^th of March to the 1^st of April 2022 at Adama. Accompanied by different lectures and practical sessions, the training aimed to achieve three major objectives: building the capacity of staff members, producing high-quality manuscripts and evidence, and creating long-living collaboration between senior researchers and the center.

At the dawn of the current Ethiopian fiscal year, the center prioritized eight topics to be investigated based on a demand assessment made at the Ministry of Health. As a result, concept notes have been produced, and junior researchers of NDMC are teamed up with the invited senior researchers to work on the topics.

Experts of high caliber have participated in the mentor-based training. In that regard, Professor Yifru Berhan (former minister of MOH), Professor Taddesse (Gondar University), Dr. Mezgbu (Gondar University), Professor Getinet (International Primary Health Care Ethiopia), Dr. Zewdie (Jimma University), Mr. Bedilu (Debre Tabor University) have been assigned to be mentors for researchers of NDMC.

AAU accredits NDMC’s training manual

March 30, 2022Anteneh Tsegaye Front Page News

The college of health sciences at Addis Ababa University has, lately, given a certificate of accreditation on the training manual of data science developed by NDMC. It is known that the college is mandated to give accreditation on training manuals prepared on health and health-related issues. Taking the role of facilitation, EPHI’s Training Centre has played a key role in making follow-ups on the accreditation process. The manual on the ‘Basics of Health Data Science’ is taken to be one of a kind that aims to give pieces of training for individuals who will be work data science.

NDMC prepared this manual for in-service training to equip health professionals with knowledge, skills, and competencies on the basics of Data Science. It is expected that; it will ensure the scaling up of the data science application to solve analytically demanding health challenges.

Considering the interdisciplinary nature of health data science, the experts involved in the preparation of the syllabus and manual are from different backgrounds and institutions. Provided that, NDMC has assigned some of its experts for the whole task, the inclusion, and consultation of different experts have been found imperative. In that regard, Professor Tadesse Awoke and Dr. Adane Letta from the University of Gondor; Basiliyos Betru from Jimma University; Dr. Yabibal Fantaye from 10 Academy and P2P; Dr. Addisu Gezahign and Dr. Robel Tezera from Addis Ababa University; Mohammed Ahmed, Firewieni G/hiwot, and Dr. Feven Tadesse from National Training Center of EPHI; Latera Tesfaye, Nahom Alemseged, Rediet Million, Kemal Sherefa, and Dr. Alemnesh Hailemariam Mirkuzie from NDMC are experts who have worked on the preparation of the manual.

Lancet publishes NDMC’s, IHME’s collaborative burden of disease results

March 15, 2022Anteneh Tsegaye Front Page News

The oldest and most renowned journal of medical sciences, The Lancet, publishes a collaborative manuscript entitled ‘Progress in health among regions of Ethiopia, 1990–2019: a subnational country analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019′. The lead investigators of this study were Dr. Awoke Misganaw, a senior researcher and advisor of NDMC and Clinical Assistant Professor of IHME, and Professor Mohsen Naghavi of IHME. Apart from that, Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, Dr. Lia Taddese is the senior author of the study with Prof. Christopher Murray of IHME. States Ministers, along with, researchers and higher officials from the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, IHME, GBD collaborators, and different institutions have co-authored the study. ( https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02868-3/fulltext)

In the technical sense, the study was part of the collaborative work between EPHI and IHME as part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, and it was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. To this day, the study can be considered as the first of its kind in identifying the major improvements and pitfalls of Ethiopia’s health sector over the last three decades. To do so, it applied data from all available data sources, and come up with tangible findings, policy recommendations, and a call to action.

The major findings of the study have shown that Ethiopia has made substantial improvements in health over the last three decades. First, it is noted that the socio-demographic index has steadily increased in all regions and cities since 1990. Except for the Somali region, there were substantial declines in total fertility rates among all regions. Second, life expectancy improved across the subnational states from 1990 to 2019, and inequality in life expectancy across the regions is decreasing despite increasing socio-demographic index disparities. Along with that, the study shows the declines in causes of premature mortality among the different regions of the country.

Given that there are achievements mentioned, the study has also identified drawbacks that need improvements. For instance, the signs of progress made by Ethiopia were not uniform across the country’s highly diverse, multi-ethnic, and predominantly rural population. Besides, social and economic determinants of health appear to be overriding concerns. In addition to that, non-communicable diseases were found among the leading causes of death for regions, and pastoralist and agro-pastoralist regions have a high burden of non-communicable diseases. Last but not least, particulate matter pollution, mainly household air pollution from solid fuels and ambient air pollution in urban areas, was found to be the first leading risk factor for high premature mortality and disability rates across regions.

Finally, the study has put forward the following key recommendations.

Federal and regional health policymakers need to align strategies, resources, and interventions to levels of disease burden and risk factors across regions and cities to achieve national and regional plans, SDGs, and universal health coverage targets;
Multi-sectorial transformation and coordination is required to address the social and structural drivers of health loss, and health interventions should be tailored to pastoralist, agrarian, and urban populations to address gaps in access and quality of healthcare;
Urgent solutions are needed at a federal and regional level to address the ongoing conflicts in Tigray, Amhara, Afar, Oromia, and Benishangul-Gumuz as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, which threaten the overall health and gains in life expectancy across all regions;
There is a need for the socio-economic development of poorer parts of the country, and quality health-care services in underserved areas.

For further references about the study, please visit the following links.

Facebook: https://fb.watch/bLl3MZzNYW/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHME_UW/status/1503270957049434114
IHME’s website article link: https://www.healthdata.org/research-article/progress-health-among-regions-ethiopia-1990%E2%80%932019-subnational-country-analysis

Ministry inaugurates health atlas, guideline

March 15, 2022Anteneh Tsegaye Front Page News

The National Data Management Centre for Health (NDMC) at Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) and the Policy, Plan, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate (PPMED) at the Ministry of Health, jointly, organized a conference to launch a national health atlas and data access and sharing guideline on the 14^th of March, 2022. The health atlas, produced by NDMC, appears to be the first of its kind in the health system of Ethiopia. Given the name ‘National and Regional Health Atlas’, the document is produced from the national and subnational burden of disease analysis in Ethiopia. Under the Ministry of Health’s leadership, the National Data Management Centre for Health at EPHI and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington have collaboratively been working to produce a comparable national and subnational burden of disease results from 1990 to 2019. Granted that, the atlas presents the burden of diseases between the years 1990-2019, it is highlighted that the Ministry of Health, as well as, the regional health bureaus of Ethiopia will benefit in making informed decisions. Through the entire route of preparing the document, the IHME offered technical support, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided financial support.

The second document presented was a guideline on health data access and sharing, which was prepared by NDMC and PPMED and experts from different institutions have participated in the preparation of the document. Again, it has been stressed that this guideline is the first document prepared to govern issues related to health data access and sharing in Ethiopia.

Overall, keynote speeches, presentations, and discussions were the major activities at the event. In that regard, Dr. Ruth Nigatu, a delegate of the minster and chief of staff at the minister’s office, was the guest of honor and keynote speaker. Apart from that, the delegate of EPHI’s Deputy Director, Dr. Assefa Deressa also made a speech in the presence of other higher officials of the ministry, as well as, the institute. Moreover, Professor. Christopher Murray, the director for IHME, also made a keynote speech virtually.

The presentations of the conference were made by two experts. Dr. Awoke Misganaw (advisor of NDMC and Ass. Professor at the University of Washington) presented the key findings of the national and regional burden of disease in Ethiopia, and Dr. Kedir Seid (from the ministry’s Plan, Policy Monitoring and Evaluation directorate), on his part, presented major issues on how to implement the guideline on national health data access and sharing. All in all, researchers, representatives of regional health bureaus, representatives of different institutions, local GBD collaborators, partners, and different individuals have attended the conference both physically and virtually.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health promulgates that the days between March 14 and March 18, 2022, shall be commemorated as Health Data Week. And in the future, every year within the month of March, a week will be dedicated to commemorate Health Data Week at a national level. Taking the catchphrase ‘Enhanced Partnership and Collaboration to Strengthen the Health Information System’, the week is expected to be a milestone in promoting data use for informed decisions through collaborative works.