Muhimbili Health Exchange Forum (MuHEF)

Background

The persistent  challenge of  human resources for health in Tanzania has  largely been contributed to isolation of health workers in remote areas of the country and paucity of information. This inadequacy of information is one of the major obstacles to better health services in the developing countries. TGPSH in collaboration with the School of Public Health and Social Sciences of Muhimbili University and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) identified the need of addressing the challenge through a needs assessment in early 2003 and developed an online health information resource known as  Muhimbili University Health Exchange Forum (MuHEF).

Objective

To facilitate communication and the flow of health information to and from the districts, regions, health experts and postgraduate students.

Approach

The MuHEF website was launched in October 2003 through a number of activities that included marketing of the forum and distribution of offline CD-ROMS to all districts, a process that takes place on an annual basis. Commitment from health experts was solicited to ensure prompt responses to questions from the periphery. This was done through a series of meetings with the experts, requesting them also to share with MuHEF all relevant documents including unpublished literature. These meetings are now used to discuss progress on the implementation, aiming at increasing ownership of the project on the part of the MUHAS staff. The project is manned by a team of four people; a Coordinator, an IT Coordinator, a Sociologist and a member of the Secretariat.

Main features/contents of MuHEF

• National guidelines, policies and strategies on treatment, care,   prevention etc.
• Abstracts and full documents on studies and research 
• HIV/AIDS section covering topics on prevention, transmission, overcoming stigma and living positively
• Online Questions and Answers ( Q & A) facility this is an online moderated platform where health workers in the peripheries could ask questions and receive responses from selected experts within 3 days

There is also provision for an offline CD-ROM version for use in places where there is no internet connection. Distribution of the offline CD-ROMs is done on an annual basis or during promotional activities of the websites at meetings, conferences taking place nationally and internationally.

Impact – what has been achieved

• Increased number of visits to the site: From inception late 2003 to date, the number of visits to the site are over 28,000 , this number has been increasing comparatively over the years.
• Improved health services resulting from improved knowledge of health workers in the districts through the website “Q & A” facility.
• Improved features of the website over the years since it has been promoted internationally and nationally e.g. during  the annual scientific conference in Arusha, Tanzania Tele-conference held in Luxemburg, Germany, etc.
• Increased access to national guidelines, policies, strategies by health workers in the districts. 
• Increased knowledge on the use of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)  and the internet to search for health information, see more information on the next page. 

  For more information visit: www.muhef.or.tz or download documentation on  "Information and Communication Technology at District Level" and  'Health information sharing in Africa using ICT'