News

August 6, 2023NDMCFront PageNews

The Ethiopian Public Health Institute’s National Data Management and Analytics Center for Health (NDMC) in collaboration with Haromaya University and Child Health and Mortality Prevention (CHAMPS Ethiopia) project organized a workshop to raise awareness among media professionals about the leading causes of illness and death for children under five years of age in Ethiopia on June 14, 2023 and the next day with international stakeholders at the Institute’s National Training Center’s hall.

To make the leading causes of illness and death of children under five years old and their solutions accessible to the public by raising awareness among various media professionals was the major aim of the discussion.  A study conducted by Haromaya University and NDMC on the leading causes of illness and death for children under the age of five was presented on the forum and the participant experts were made aware of it.

This study findings  confirmed that malnutrition during pregnancy, neural tube defect, birth asphyxia, low birth weight, and malnutrition among infants and children under five years old are the leading causes of child death.

Also in these studies, it was indicated that high blood pressure during pregnancy is the major risk factor of death of children while asphyxiated during childbirth leading to Sepsis  and pneumonia is the cause of infants’ death.The study emphasized mothers should do pre-pregnancy checkup, antenatal follow-up and prenatal monitoring and also adjust their diet during pregnancy to be solutions of the problems indicated in the study.

Finally consensus has been reached that Ministry of Health, NDMC, Haromaya University, CHAMPS Ethiopia and the media should work in harmony and use all the available media outlets to create awareness among the society and avoid causes of children’s illness and death.  And also agreement was reached with the international stakeholders to work together to reduce the problem.

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December 16, 2022NDMCFront PageNews

The National Data Management Center for Health conducted its first scientific session on the 14 th of December, 2022. An output of a manuscript and a concept note were presented by staff members of the centre for discussions and feedbacks. Aspiring to bring tangible changes within the centre, the session is made with the following basic objectives. First, it aims to advance research and analytic methods, increase scientific credibility, and produce research outputs that are well analyzed to serve informed decision making. Second, it intends to increase the exchange of knowledge among staff members working within the center and at EPHI, at large. Last but not least, it will play an indispensable role in acculturating discussions on scientific discourses. In that regard, the centre has made a decision to arrange sessions every two weeks for good.

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October 11, 2022NDMCFront PageNews

The prominent journal publishing different issues on health and medical affairs, Nature Medicine, invited Dr. Lia Taddesse (Minister, MOH) to publish a perspective on the relevance of investing in health data to foster economic growth in low and middle-income countries. Content-wise, the article has addressed major issues related to data use in the health dynamics of low and middle-income countries. Above all, however, Ethiopia’s experience of managing and using health data for informed decision-making has been made a flagship all the way through. This has been shown by the astonishing jobs done by the collaborative project of IHME-EPHI on the subnational burden of disease estimation. More specifically, the activities conducted by the offspring of the collaboration, the National Data Management and Analytics Centre for Health at EPHI, have been put exemplary in archiving, analyzing, and interpreting data for informed decision-making. Finally, she has forwarded some remarks on how to improve data management practices in low and middle-income countries. Find the complete article with the link below.

More:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02022-8

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September 11, 2022NDMCFront PageNews

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), in collaboration with the African Union-Africa CDC and EPHI, has offered the first round 5 days training for participants from East Africa countries. The training, conducted from 5th to 9th of September, invited 14 countries of Eastern Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Eritrea, Comoros, Somali, Seychelles, Tanzania, and Mauritius. The training aimed to let participants understand GBD estimates, details of methods and data sources, data quality and gaps of data, creating collaboration for scientific informed decision making across East Africa countries.

The training was given by experts from the IHME on different issues including: demographics, causes of death, non-fatal health outcomes, risk factors, and policy applications. Practical experiences and success stories of EPHI’s National Data Management and Analytics Centre (NDMC) was shared and inspired many participants to amalgamate an enhanced data management system within their respective countries.

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September 2, 2022NDMCFront PageNews

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) offered training on the sub-national burden of disease estimation on August 31 and September 1, 2022, at Raddison BLU hotel, Addis Ababa. The National Data Management Center for Health (NDMC) took the role of organizing the training; the whole training aimed to capacitate staff members of MOH, EPHI, GBD collaborators, researchers from universities, and representatives of Health and Demographic Surveillance sites (HDSS), officers from regional public health institutes and regional health bureaus on the sub-national burden of disease estimation. In the technical sense, it focused on estimating the burden and distribution of diseases in small areas. In that regard, demographics, causes of death, non-fatal health outcomes, risk factors, and policy applications were the areas given the emphasis in the training. By far, the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) has provided tools to quantify health loss from hundreds of diseases, injuries, and risk factors. The aim of doing so is to improve health systems and eliminate disparities.

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April 4, 2022Anteneh TsegayeFront PageNews

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.

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March 30, 2022Anteneh TsegayeFront PageNews

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.

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March 15, 2022Anteneh TsegayeFront PageNews

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

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March 15, 2022Anteneh TsegayeFront PageNews

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.

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November 26, 2021NDMCFront PageNews

The National Data Management Centre for Health, at EPHI, has hosted a workshop between November, 23 -26, 2021 on the customization of HDSS database system and data sharing platform. Given that the purpose of Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites is to generate longitudinal information on the health and population of a geographically defined population, there is a need to upgrade the existing system employed to execute the data management of the sites. In technical senses, the workshop has presented short term plan that are aimed at alleviating the existing problems open HDS system. Hence, it has been agreed that the customization of the system needs to take place the sooner possible.

Participants in the workshop were representatives of 10 different universities (owning   HDSS sites). Moreover, software experts of the NDMC have also taken part in the workshop. Apparently, an action plan, with specific details, on how to customize the existing database system of HDSS has been prepared. Besides, major inputs for the software have been identified and incorporated into the plan. The workshop was coordinated by a staff member of NDMC and a technical assistant to HDSS sites – Mr. Yihune Lakew.

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