Rational
Despite the existence of an eHealth architecture that includes health information exchange as one component, the Ethiopian healthcare system is comprised of numerous independent EMR systems. There is a lack of standardized EMR systems in the country, and the majority of clinical information systems were designed with donor interests. Furthermore, there is a lack of standardized clinical terminologies, unique identifiers for health professionals and patients, and clinical data repositories. The result is disaggregated and non-harmonized data collected by multiple applications and stored in different locations and formats that cannot be integrated. As a result, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health intended to create working documents for a community of practice to exchange health information.
These communities of Practice (CoPs) aim to strengthen and facilitate health information exchange in the Ethiopian healthcare system by bringing together health practitioners to learn, share expertise, and collaborate. This will improve HIS interoperability in the Ethiopian healthcare system, allowing decision-makers like clinicians, health ministries, and program leaders to access the data they need to support better health outcomes.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the UoG)-teams, serves as the community's home. This community is usually open to anyone who works or is interested in the exchange of health information. Furthermore, the interoperability CoPs provide a collaborative framework for health professionals to collaborate on identifying and leveraging best practices and standards. Through evolving collaborative efforts and the sharing of lessons learned in the community-building process, this community of practice will significantly improve long-term health information exchange standards and health outcomes in Ethiopia.
