More and more countries worldwide are aiming to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as well as Universal Social Protection (USP) for their populations. In the health sector, health financing and healthcare provision become gradually integrated into coherent and better coordinated healthcare systems. 

Due to the variety of stakeholders (payers, providers, beneficiaries) and the respective interactions between them, health care systems are extremely complex. The variety of processes results in a large amount of data. This complexity and information density makes it challenging to design, manage and adjust system processes, especially on a larger scale. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can provide enormously helpful instruments to support these tasks. 

openIMIS is the first and only open source software that links beneficiary, provider and payer data. Designed to manage complex interactions of a health care system, it covers processes from enrolling or registering beneficiaries to transmitting and processing claims and calculating reimbursements for providers. The management information system has a modular and interoperable structure, which supports a variety of health system business processes. Due to the flexibility, the software can be adapted to the various needs of low- and middle-income countries on their path to UHC. 

The openIMIS Initiative seeks to create and engage a global community of practice for software developers and users, as well as to provide capacity-building services.

The webinar introduced the openIMIS Initiative, its platforms (openIMIS Wiki) and tools (openIMIS Jira), the openIMIS software as well as showcased its application in Nepal.

The webinar is valuable for UHC practitioners, policy makers, digital experts, and development partners dealing with the management of health financing schemes and digital solutions. 

Speakers: 

Alexander Schulze, Co-Head Division Global Programme Health, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

Siddharth Srivastava, Health Financing Specialist, Health Economics and Financing Group, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) 

Dr. Madan Upadhyay, Executive Director, Health Insurance Board (HIB), Nepal

Moderator: 

Ralf Radermacher, Head of Sector Initiative Social Protection, Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

This webinar was the second of the EU-SPS Series, which was organized by GIZ.