Technical Officer (Health Information Management - HIM)

Contract

This is a P-4 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 123,537 USD and 159,276 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

The objective of the WHO Nepal Country Office is to implement the Country Cooperation Strategy by (1) supporting the Nepal Government in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of national health policies, strategies and plans and by (2) developing and managing WHOs' technical cooperation programs at the country level. Nepal, with the promulgation of its new constitution in 2015, became a federal state with three governance levels (the federal, the provincial, and the local). Each level has its mandated responsibility to ensure the health of the population. Given the evolving management and implementation structures at different governance levels, there is a need for WHO to respond and support these structures at national and sub-national levels to improve equity and quality of health services, reorganization and management of health care delivery, human resources, information systems and monitoring of situations, risks and trends, supplies chain management, health risk monitoring and disease surveillance systems. Such interventions are required for measurement and accountability and to facilitate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the targets in the WHO's 13th General Programme of Work (GPW13). Specifically, as the state moves towards a more federalized set-up, WHO will support the country in aligning the erstwhile centralized health system structure - especially with respect to health information management - with the new devolved but integrated structures at the three levels of governance. WHO also provides guidance and technical support in organizing the humanitarian health response following emergencies and in revitalizing the capacity of the health sector to rebuild and recover from emergencies in appropriate and sustainable ways. In the inter-emergency period the objectives are to increase the capacity and self-reliance of Nepal to reduce risk, prevent and prepare for disasters, to mitigate adverse health consequences, and to create synergy between emergency risk management and sustainable development through appropriate capacity building and co-ordination mechanism and partnerships. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) supports the MoHP to direct and co-ordinate the rapid provision of life-saving emergency health interventions at scale in the aftermath of multi-hazard disasters and subsequently assists in the rapid recovery of the health system in collaboration with national and international partners. Thereupon it provides technical support to the MoH and partners to enhance health sector emergency risk management through risk reduction or mitigation; preparedness and response readiness to build a health system that is resilient to multi-hazard disasters including public health emergencies. All these require a robust emergency health information management system that is seamlessly linked with and leverages the legacy routine health information systems for effective management of preparedness, response and recovery interventions.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Under the overall strategic guidance and direct supervision of the WHO Representative and the technical guidance of the Team Leads of WHO Country Office for Nepal, the incumbent will perform the following duties:

1. Provide technical guidance on appropriate design, deployment and institutionalization of health informatics and digital health interventions in line with National eHealth Strategy, eHealth and Integrated Health Information Management System (IHIMS) Roadmaps, and WHO Global and Regional Digital Health Strategies, Action Plans, and Guidance.
2. Provide hands-on technical support on the effective assessment, situation analysis, design, planning, deployment, expansion, and sustainability of information and communications technology (ICT)-enabled solutions across the health system for prioritizing, planning, delivering, monitoring and management of health services, public health interventions such as immunization and specific information systems essential for each health systems building block.
3. Support the development and implementation of a health information architecture to enable standards-based, interoperable Health Information Exchange (HIE) for smooth information flow to benefit all public health programmes and public health emergency risk management interventions.
4. Support HMIS/DHIS2 to integrate various streams of health information systems and strengthen mechanisms and capacity for data quality assurance; timeliness and completeness of reporting; effective analysis; generation of information products and seamless sharing of relevant information and products across different public health programmes and public health emergency management interventions.
5. Enable the adaptation and roll out of robust epidemiological and laboratory based surveillance, case investigation and contact tracing systems and their harmonized functioning in an integrated manner at the national and sub-national levels for early identification of potential public health events and outbreaks and enabling rapid response for their containment such as the IMU application, SORMAS, Go.Data, WHONET etc
6. Design/Adapt and establish systems for public health emergency risk monitoring such as INFORM and for early detection, verification, risk assessment and rapid reporting of acute public health events including those that may lead to public health emergencies of national/international concern using a variety of formal and informal information and health intelligence sources as utilized in the WHO Epidemic Intelligence Open Source (EIOS).
7. Support in the design, development and deployment of a health information repository and decision support platform such as OSCAR for consolidation of information generated from routine/legacy and ad hoc / emergency health information systems for effective epidemiological and geo-spatial analysis, visualization, dissemination and generation of evidence-based response scenarios, options and decisions.
8. Support development and roll out and inter-operability of electronic health and electronic medical records in various types of hospitals and community level health facilities of Nepal with primary focus on the public health sector.
9. Provide guidance to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems through multi-sectoral approaches and link them with relevant health information management systems including medical certification of deaths; Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Reporting (MPDSR) and information systems for morbidity, complications and mortality outcomes of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) to enable efficient triangulation of events and outcomes of interest to health sector interventions, disease burden estimation and health sector planning.
10. Support to build country capacity on health informatics through the development and deployment of a pre-service and in-service training strategies and packages for information managers; medical, paramedical and allied health professionals at all levels that always enables effective information management in all situations.
11. Support HMIS, EDCD, HEOC and other relevant divisions / centers of DoHS/MOHP to conduct detailed analysis of information collected to generate health situation updates, programme performance reports and policy briefs for correcting existing and designing new health programmes and system strengthening interventions.
12. Collaborate / Liaise with relevant government and partner agencies, regional and global experts, collaborative forums and communities to improve the outcomes of partnerships and resources available for digital health interventions; identify resource and partnership gaps and mobilize additional resources / facilitate new partnerships needed for further enhancing the national health information systems and platforms align with global best practices on health information, digital health and monitoring and evaluation.
13. On behalf of WCO Nepal, lead the collation and analysis of data collected from various information / reporting systems, support generation of strategic health information/statistics products and their effective dissemination.
14. Develop and provide capacity building and training to colleagues within WCO Nepal and key government and partner agencies focusing on enhancing analytics, visualization and knowledge management and informatics competencies; and promote a culture of internal and external collaboration and cross-cutting team work to ensure optimal generation, collection, collation , analysis, reporting and sharing of data and information for favorable health outcomes.
15. Undertake any other tasks and duties assigned by the WHO Representative or delegated official as required.16.Submit an end of assignment report (Mandatory)

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential: •University degree in Health Informatics or Public Health or Business / Health Administration with a Masters degree in any of the above disciplines or in Epidemiology or Global / International Health from an accredited/recognized institute. Desirable: •Postgraduate degree in life sciences and health statistics or data analytics or information management, Training in humanitarian / health sector response in emergencies would be desirable.

Experience

Essential: •At least seven years relevant experience in the areas of health analytics, health informatics operations, digital health applications in surveillance / epidemiology, monitoring and evaluation. Demonstrated exposure at international level. Desirable: •Relevant work experience in WHO, other UN agencies; experience working in relevant non-governmental or humanitarian organizations. Experience in developing countries. Experience in formulation, planning, management and reporting on projects in any area related to health informatics.

Skills

•Core competencies in data collection, analysis, interpretation and reporting for surveillance, epidemiologic, operational and health systems performance monitoring objectives with experience in providing technical assistance in these areas in both normalcy and during multi-hazard and public health emergencies. •Demonstrated ability in planning, organization and management of health information systems and digital health solutions, and capability to relate to and clearly articulate and advocate for health information systems strengthening concepts and operations at various levels of the health system, taking account of the health needs, political and technical constraints and resource limitations.•Strong working experience in Health Information, Management Information, Hospital Information systems using DHSI2 and other open source information architecture and solutions, implementing data and information standards and inter-operability frameworks at the national and international levels in normal times and during emergencies. •Strong knowledge of public health informatics theories, principles, concepts, and standards; especially health information exchange standards for interoperability of subsystems and experience with Open HIE framework. •Proven skills and strong experience in enhancing organization, management and monitoring and evaluation of health programme / project interventions using digital solutions in normal times and during emergencies. •Ability to work with senior government and partner agency officials at national and international levels and capacity to adapt to multicultural environments with effective interpersonal skills.•Ability to work under pressure especially during emergencies and excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills.•Technical Expertise; Overall attitude at work, in accordance with the required mandatory competencies.

WHO Competencies

Teamwork Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences Communication Ensuring the effective use of resources Producing results

Use of Language Skills

Essential: Expert knowledge of English. Desirable:

REMUNERATION

WHO salaries for staff in the Professional category are calculated in US dollars. The remuneration for the above position comprises an annual base salary starting at USD 74,913 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as applicable), a variable post adjustment, which reflects the cost of living in a particular duty station, and currently amounts to USD 1854 per month for the duty station indicated above. Other benefits include 30 days of annual leave, allowances for dependent family members, home leave, and an education grant for dependent children.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level

• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.

• A written test may be used as a form of screening.

• In the event that your candidature is retained for an interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.

• Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and Manual.

• Staff members in other duty stations are encouraged to apply.

• For information on WHO's operations please visit: http://www.who.int.

• WHO is committed to workforce diversity.

• WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter into practice.

• WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of final candidates.

• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.

• WHO has a mobility policy which can be found at the following link: http://www.who.int/employment/en/. Candidates appointed to an international post with WHO are subject to mobility and may be assigned to any activity or duty station of the Organization throughout the world.

• Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged.