Global good partners in profile: Annah Ngaruro, ICF
Each quarter, Digital Square shines the spotlight on global goods and innovators in our community through our Global Goods Community Newsletter. Annah Ngaruro is a Project Management Institute-certified Project Management Professional and a Certified Information Systems Security Professional with 20 years of experience developing and supporting health information systems for variety of US government agencies. She is currently the DATIM Data Exchange and Interoperability portfolio lead responsible for providing the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy (S/GAC) Program Results for Impact Monitoring and Epidemic Control (PRIME) with portfolio leadership and product ownership for the data exchange and interoperability portfolio within the DATIM systems teams.
Tell us about your background and how your career has evolved to bring you into the global digital health sector?
My background is very technical. My mother, an economist by training, was always curious about the future. She was constantly reading about computer science and knew it was the new frontier. She thought, “Why shouldn’t one of my daughters work in this field?” This inspired me to obtain my bachelor’s degree in information technology.
I started as a database programmer in the private sector, working for Nation Media Group, one biggest news organizations in Africa, as they launched their digital newspaper. While there, I began to realize that I wanted to apply my skills to an area that would be of direct benefit to people and help humanity.
I finished my master’s in information systems and began learning about healthcare while working on school-based health surveys at ICF International. I also worked on projects for federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. One of these projects was the launch of the Affordable Care Act under the Obama Administration. While I enjoyed working on domestic projects, I switched over to international development when an opportunity came up to review Kenya’s HMIS reporting system to PEPFAR (KePMS). After I developed the assessment, and provided recommendations for the system, I was invited to work on an ICF project to support USAID’s Regional Development Mission/Asia.
What excites you most about the digital health space?
What excites me most is the innovation occurring in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), especially among young people. They grew up with the technology, are filled with ideas, and are very close to the health problem. Digital health is a dynamic industry within LMICs.
I’m also really passionate about mentoring women in technology especially in LMICs, where it is still a male-dominated field. I believe that there are many opportunities for women. The skill set that is required to build information systems is innate in women – to ask questions and dig deep in to what the problem is, find the solution, and make sure that the solution works with the users. Women are naturally observant, and this skill set helps tailor the systems to the user.
How has your work been impacted by the support of Digital Square?
There has been a lot of proliferation of open source tools. What Digital Square has done is define global goods, tools and technologies, that can be used for multiple purposes backed by different, sustainable financial models. Digital Square has made the international community recognize the value of global goods– which is really exciting to me.
Digital Square also provides the opportunity for donor alignment. If a tool is to be sustainable and usable, donors must them. We must recognize that there is a definite amount of investment available. Digital Square provides the opportunity for donors to coordinate their investment and reduce duplication.
How do you think Digital Square is helping to bring together the global good communities?
I’m group lead on DATIM system teams’ data exchange and interoperability group where the Data Use Community initiative sits. As open source tools have proliferated, LMICs have become good at health data collection. Now, we need to move forward with a focus on how we use the data, not just collect it. Some of my work involves thinking through how to leverage data assets to answer programmatic questions. For example, if you’re thinking about a new data streams, what is the analytical question that you are trying to answer? What answers is that data providing? So that we are not just focused on data collection.
Data Use Community (DUC)
The Data Use Community (DUC) is an open community of organizations and individuals passionate about improving health and healthcare data sharing. The DUC works to support better quality care through data use by collaborating across facilities, countries, care levels, and organizations. One way of achieving this is through our maturity framework – a tool for the community to assess their data use and system capabilities. This framework will also support identifying what capabilities are needed in order to improve their performance to achieve the next level of system maturity. For more information and to join the DUC,
visit: https://ohie.org/duc/
How will covid-19 impact the digital health sector over the next five years? how do you generally see the digital health sector evolving over the next five years?
Currently, the default form of patient care is in-person. COVID has shown that in-person interactions will continue to be disrupted, and digital tools will have to fill that gap. COVID has amplified the need for digital tools, so that patients continue to receive health services.
Many times, we in the digital health sector try to persuade people of the value of digital tools. With COVID and moving forward, it’s becoming ubiquitous and obvious to everybody. Now, it’s not about convincing people to use the tools, but one step further -- making sure that they respond to user needs.
What are some of your other interest areas?
One of my other area that I’m passionate about is data security. I have been involved in several projects in data security, one of which is development and assessment of an EMR tool in Uganda. As the use of digital tools grows, people living in LMICs will want more information about how these tools are maintaining their confidentiality. I look forward to supporting the growth of security and data protection.