Digital Square investing in nine proposals to strengthen digital health software tools

Digital Square is pleased to announce that nine proposals were selected for investment as part of our third round of funding, Notice C, which included two announcements, Notice C0 and Notice C1. A total of $1.26 million is being invested into these digital health software tools by multiple donors. One of these donors, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), committed a total of $151,827 to coinvest alongside Digital Square’s funding for Notice C1. Notice C was implemented using Digital Square’s Open Proposal Process and Platform (OPP&P). Concept notes and proposals were publicly posted, giving submitters the opportunity to find collaborators and provide and receive feedback from peers. The iterative feedback and proposal process allowed submitters to refine and strengthen their concepts before final submission. More information on our proposal process can be found here.

The open source Insurance Management Information System (openIMIS) Initiative envisions a transformation into a management information system that is interoperable with national health information architectures. Digital Square is coordinating with GIZ to further the development of openIMIS according to the priorities and road map as described on the openIMIS Initiative wiki.

Through Notice C, Digital Square is investing in the following proposals.

Notice C0:

·      OpenLMIS: Advancing a collaborative, open, and growing community

·      Strengthening the OpenMRS implementer ecosystem through community, quality assurance, education, and partnership

·      Integration of the OpenELIS open source laboratory information system with leading clinical and logistics information systems

·      Zero to mHero: A packaged workflow for technologists

·      An instant OpenHIE

·      DHIS2 utility suite

Notice C1:

·      DHIS2 as an analytics, reporting, and visualization solution for openIMIS

·      Develop a claim submission, enrollment, and enrollment verification module with a clinical point of service application using the relevant HL7 FHIR standards, openIMIS, and OpenMRS

·      Integrating openIMIS with Bahmni: A Nepal-based proof-of-concept project

Digital Square invests in existing digital health software tools to ensure they are properly resourced for sustained development. To be eligible for funding, software tools must be global goods, which are adaptable to different countries and contexts, and are often free and open source software (FOSS). More information on what qualifies as a global good, and what a mature global good looks like, can be found on our Wikipedia page.

Digital Square’s next round of investment for digital health software global goods, Notice D, will open in 2019. More information on the criteria for funding can be found in the Notice C0 and Notice C1 calls for proposals located on the Digital Square Wikipedia page.