Health Data Ecosystem Mapping: Ghana

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) launched the Digital Innovation in Pandemic Control (DIPC) project in 2021 to bring digital health technical expertise to countries to create more pandemic-prepared health systems. The DIPC project provided an award to Digital Square to partner with ministries of health and other key stakeholders from November 2022 to 2024 to scale the use of digital tools for COVID-19 and routine vaccination planning, deployment, and monitoring. The DIPC project is creating models for improved and more sustainable pandemic-prepared health systems with a focus on immunization workflows using three exemplar countries: Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania. 

Scaling the Use of Digital Tools for Vaccination Planning, Deployment, and Monitoring

Digital Square partnered with Ghana Health Service (GHS) to review existing assessments and workflows to better understand the landscape of tools currently used in Ghana’s immunization health domain. GHS and Digital Square used various methodologies to produce this country profile, which included a desk review, consultative sessions with ministry officials, and an online survey that included representation from all 16 regions in the country. This country profile provides an overview of current digital immunization systems used in Ghana and outlines priorities so that Ghana—led by the direction of GHS and its existing governance mechanisms and supported by other key stakeholders—can use the findings to inform its journey to develop and operationalize interoperable digital systems that support immunization from end to end. 

Key findings from ecosystem mapping reveal that GHS has strong existing digital health governance mechanisms in place, such as a Digital Health Technical Working Group and Regional Digital Health Technical Committees. Five digital systems for immunization are described in this report, each one including an overview of the solution, its major functional features, existing challenges, and recommended interventions to strengthen the system. The five digital systems described in detail include District Health Information Management System II (DHIMS2), e-Tracker, Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS), Ghana Integrated Logistics Management Information System (GhiLMIS), and Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS). GHS is experiencing rapid growth in the development and adoption of these mobile and web-based digital health systems; however, a number of the existing systems are not integrated and/or interoperable. Although there is a strong technical capacity in Ghana to work with digital systems, there is a need for more training—particularly at the community and facility levels (e.g., Community-based Health Planning and Services [CHPS]). There is also an urgent need to address the lack of stable internet connectivity and the availability of data plans to ensure users can use the systems. Interoperability challenges and gaps in the digital systems supporting the functional components of immunization also exist (e.g., digital immunization certificates, microplanning, product catalog).