Health Informatics Section of the Centre for Evaluation of Public Health Interventions - Zimbabwe

Though still in its formative stages, HIS expects to provide these services:

• Technical support
• by establishing an expert core group that supports HIV/AIDS interventions
• by assisting with cooperative and multidisciplinary research
• by creating special awareness about assessment of published research information and improving the access to and the dissemination of best current knowledge relevant to public health interventions in HIV/AIDS)
• Training support in use of both general Information Communication Technology (ICT) applications to members of CEPHI and specific applications like EpiInfo2000. HIS will also support curriculum development for public health informatics training through the Department of Community Medicine and other key role-players and will provides direct involvement in teaching

Among additional proposed activities is the creation of a low-cost CD-ROM of electronic resource material for teaching and learning about Drug Management in Zimbabwe that would include an update on existing course material.

The long-term plan involves developing HIS as a local and regional training centre for computer literacy training, Epi-Info, specialised training courses, training courses for end-users on information retrieval and development of critical appraisal skills, and "Training of trainers" courses. This centre might also provide an expert group that could help develop national systems of linked and integrated population-level health databases, foster evidence-based public health policy and practice, and design computer-assisted learning materials to enhance teaching/learning capacity in national health training institutions.

Health, HIV/AIDS, Technology.

Health Informatics is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with the resources, devices, and methods of storage, retrieval, and management of biomedical information for problem solving and decision-making.

The long-term strategic plan for HIS will be determined by the Department of Community Medicine in collaboration with key stakeholders (public and private sector, NGOs, and other donor-funded programmes) in the country. A wide range of such organisations attended a meeting in June, 2002 to suggest specific priorities for CEPHI over the coming years.