Recognizing the urgent need to improve the availability and use of information on health care in developing countries, IntraHealth International recently joined the online campaign and knowledge network called Health Information for All (HIFA2015). HIFA2015, which is coordinated by the UK-based Global Healthcare Information Network, has more than 3,000 individual members representing 1,800 organizations in 150 countries worldwide. This campaign was launched in October 2006 in Kenya at the 10th Congress of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa. It aims to ensure that all people have access to an informed health care provider by 2015. You can learn more about HIFA2015 by joining its two online discussion forums: HIFA2015 and CHILD2015.

Every year, HIFA2015 organizes a health worker challenge that examines the information needs of different health workers. This year, the campaign focused on community health workers; last year it was nurses and midwives; and in 2008, it was health care students. These campaigns focus on raising awareness of the information and educational needs of health workers, promoting discussion around this topic, and reviewing the literature for work on the subject.

Like HIFA2015, IntraHealth is committed to guaranteeing that all health workers have the health information and education that they need to offer the highest-quality care. In developing countries with limited information infrastructure this can be challenging, but IntraHealth employs innovative solutions such as our our partnership with Hope Phones [link]. This initiative provides mobile phones to African health workers to allow them to seek support and offer referrals and consultations for maternal and child health services, including obstetric care, delivery, family planning, and diagnosis and treatment of malaria and HIV. IntraHealth is also developing and deploying human resource information systems (iHRIS) [link] in a number of countries to create the information infrastructure that supports quality care.  Finally, through the HRH Global Resource Center [link] IntraHealth promotes best practices, resources, and tools for country and global HRH leaders.