HEALTH practitioners across the continent need to adopt the use of ICT as a major catalyst for the improvement of healthcare service delivery.

This was agreed upon by health experts at the opening  of a workshop on Health Information System second version (DHIS2) in Rubavu District on Wednesday.

The 10-day workshop aims at strengthening national and regional capacity to successfully set up, design and maintain the DHIS2 software, building a community of DHIS2 users and experts in the different regions while facilitating the sharing of experience on the system.

It will also help ensure the sustainability of the platform across Africa by developing a strong cadre of local experts who will foster collaboration.

The workshop brought together participants working in ministries of health from 18 countries, mostly from Africa.

"In a continent that is just developing, e-based tools are essential. ICTs provide the most efficient tool for smart management,” Dr Agnes Binagwaho, the Minister for Health said while opening the workshop.

"In Rwanda, ICT is at the centre of our development. We must therefore strive to improve healthcare delivery using ICTs,” she added.

Binagwaho urged participants at DHIS2 academy to make sure they acquire skills that would help improve services in their countries using ICT.

Andrew Muhire, the Head of Health Management Information System programme in the Ministry of Health said the training will help improve the management of health information.

"This workshop will equip all people working in health management information systems with skills and capacity to customise their systems based on their countries needs,” Muhire said.

DHIS2 is an open source software for reporting, analysing and dissemination of data for all health programmes.

It is configured to the central servers in national data centres and all health facilities have user names and passwords which they use for sending data collected to the Ministry of Health, according to Muhire

The training will help participants acquire skills which they will share with Community Health Workers who also play a significant role in the Health Management Information System, according to officials.

Professor Kristin Braa from Oslo’s department of informatics, said the system started 20 years ago and has helped create national health information systems.

She said Rwanda was chosen to host the workshop because of its best practice and ability to implement health programmes among other health implantations.

Braa said the workshop will help boost their skills and thus help them improve their working system using ICT.