HIPNET - Health Information and Publications Network

1. Please send Laurie Liskin, Laurie.liskin@macrointernational.com, ideas and tools that you have used, developed or are aware of for presenting and disseminating data. Also, f you have successfully evaluated any tools, please also include evaluation instruments.

2. Send agenda ideas for the next meeting to Neha Suchak, Neha_Suchak@abtassoc.com, or Laura Raney, lraney@fhi.org.

3. If you have publications that you would like to include in the next HIPNet Library Mailing in English, French or Spanish, please contact Heather Johnson, hjohnson@jhuccp.org. Also let Heather know if you have libraries or resource centers that you would like to be included in the master mailing list.

4. If you would like a copy of the HIPNet mailing list or have contacts to add to it, please contact Laura Raney, lraney@fhi.org.

5. Similarly, if you would like a copy of the HIPNet contact list for printers, translators, graphic designers, etc. or have folks to add, please contact Laura Raney, lraney@fhi.org.

6. If you are interested in working on a journal subscription consortium for CAs in order to negotiate a lower price from vendors, please contact Neha Suchak, Neha_Suchak@abtassoc.com.

Presentation – “Dissemination and Data Use Tools” – Laurie Liskin, MEASURE DHS.

Since 1984, the MEASURE DHS (Demographic and Health Surveys) project has provided technical assistance to more than 200 surveys in 75 countries, advancing global understanding of health and population trends in developing countries. The strategic objective of MEASURE DHS is to improve and institutionalize the collection and use of data by host countries for program monitoring and evaluation and for policy development decisions. MEASURE DHS is funded by USAID with contributions from other donors.

MEASURE's dissemination package typically includes a final report, a key findings report, PowerPoint presentations, a factsheet, a press release, and a national seminar. Additional dissemination materials and activities include policy briefs, guides to Reading DHS tables, special topical publications (youth, gender, etc.), topic specific seminars, and regional workshops.

Dissemination issues and concerns include getting information out of the capital city, extending dissemination beyond the immediate post-release period, maximizing local opportunities for dissemination, and difficulty tracking and monitoring using. DHS almost always works with government statistics offices, who do not typically think of themselves as providing dissemination or knowledge management services. This is complicated by the fact that MEASURE has no field presence.

Improving DHS Data Literacy is also an important component of disseminating the reports. End users need to be able to understand the terminology used, concepts such as sampling errors and confidence intervals, how to read tables, and how to compare multiple data sources. MEASURE tries to time their workshops with a country's national planning cycle so they are able to incorporate the new data into their planning.

DHS is currently preparing a toolkit for Using DHS Results with the goals of: improving DHS literacy; applying survey results to programs and policies at district, regional and national level; and supporting ongoing use of DHS and other survey data. Existing tools include: How to Read Tables; DHS for Journalists; Workshop Exercises; DHS curriculum; Tips on giving good presentations; and the Measure Evaluation calendar.

For the DHS Toolkit, the dissemination Section will include: Dissemination Planning Guide; How to give a good presentation; Rules for preparing PowerPoint presentations, Tips for Writing Press Releases, Revised Decision Calendar for using survey results; How to Read a DDHS Table plus PowerPoint presentation; Understanding and Interpreting Trends in Survey Results; and Writing Policy Briefs.

Questions for HIPNet members:

• What tools are you using?
• Evaluation of any existing tools? If yes, what are the methods?
• Have your counterparts used these methods without you?
• What tools are still needed?
• How can the DHS program help you use our data more effectively?
• How can we collaborate?

Please send Laurie Liskin, Laurie.liskin@macrointernational.com, ideas and tools that you have used, developed or are aware of for presenting and disseminating data. Also, if you have successfully evaluated any tools, please also include evaluation instruments.

Laura Raney (FHI): The Population Council’s FRONTIERS Project has several presentations that may be useful, including how to make a good presentation, how to present data, etc. Contact Jim Foreit for more information.

Beth Robinson (FHI): A lot of helpful generic tools surfaced while doing the literature review for an upcoming FHI communications handbook for clinical trials. These would need to be contextualized for specific data and/or specific methods of dissemination.

Brooke Barnes (CARE): CARE started a knowledge-sharing initiative to try to get in-country organization and field offices to share their tools with each other.

James BonTempo (JHPIEGO): Kirkpatrick's four levels of evaluation training programs is a good model for measuring effectiveness that allows for long-term follow-up.

Eliza Paul (HPI/Futures Group): HPI in Uttar Pradesh, India, recently did training follow-up using mobile SMS (text) technology.

Beth (FHI): Even just doing email and phone follow-ups can be important and helpful. How can we sustain dissemination? It's good to keep materials on the Web, but we also should go beyond that in using creative ways to evaluate their usage.

Hannah Guedenet (Measure DHS): How can we ensure tools are used when we can't be there in the field to encourage and promote their use?

Laurie Liskin (Measure DHS): We need to involve local people and get them using the tool actively.

Leah Gordon (Measure Evaluation): We create CoPs (communities of practice) around tools to get ideas on how to improve them; community-building around a tool helps encourage in-country use.

Hugh Rigby (Measure Evaluation): Coincidentally, our newest CoP will be Data Use Net.

Becky Bennett (MSH/AIDSTAR II): Another idea would be to use local in-country staff to be facilitators of the tool.

Susana Mendosa (IRH): We create adaptation guidelines to accompany each tool and encourage people to use only what they need.

Laurie (Measure DHS): Synthesis of a large amount of data and breaking it into small parts that are easier to understand is difficult to do for people in-country.

Brooke (CARE): CARE appoints a champion for each tool. It's important to help users understand all the parts that go into data collection used to develop a tool. Typically at an organization, the main office collects the data, but then field staff might not understand why it's collected and how it helps in developing the tool. Maybe if field staff were involved in collecting the data, they would have a better understanding of the tool from the beginning.

Saori Ohkubo (JHU/CCP/K4Health): It's important to understand all the indicators and how they are used to measure effectiveness. While we may understand why we use them, it's often a challenge to get in-country staff to use data to oversee their own programming.

James (JHPIEGO): The Capacity Project (led by IntraHealth) focuses in part on data-driven decision-making. [At the recent Global Health Council, Capacity Project hosted an auxiliary event called "Health Workforce: Using Better Data, Making Better Decisions"]

Beth (FHI): There are impact indicators for use in HIPNet's M&E Guide. The PDF is available from www.hipnet.org and is well worth reading and/or re-reading.

Tara Sullivan (JHU/CCP/K4Health): Publishing a paper with colleagues Saori Ohkubo. and Doug Storey, probably in Knowledge Management for Development journal.

Katherine Williams (Population Council): Legacy documents, including some on utilization of research, from FRONTIERS are available on the Pop Council website.www.popcouncil.org/Frontiers

Presentation: “Assessing Health Information Needs: Globally and Locally” – Tara Sullivan, Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project, JHU/CCP.

The Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project is a USAID-supported five year associate award implemented by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) in partnership with Family Health International and Management Sciences for Health. The K4Health mission: Quality health information captured, synthesized, and made easy to find and easy to use for policy makers, program managers, and service providers. The project has adopted a four-pronged KM model: 1) Engage networks; 2) Manage content; 3) Deliver knowledge; and 4) Exchange knowledge.

K4Health is conducting several Needs Assessments both globally and in multiple regions and countries to provide research and analysis of health information needs, networks, technology and tools, infrastructure, and key stakeholders. The methods include an environment scan and online survey, both of which have been completed, and an upcoming multi-country qualitative study.

Findings from the environment scan and online survey show that providers need information that is trustworthy, up-to-date, relevant to the local setting, practical, easy to digest, and convenient and accessible. For information, health workers in developing countries rely on: workshops and meetings sponsored by the facility or health care system; official materials, such as guidelines, manuals, and hospital protocols; discussions with colleagues; textbooks; and internet, if available.

The top four useful information resources were research/journal articles, handbooks, implementation guides, and fact sheets. The top four program management topics were: evidence-based programming; behavior change communication; staff training, supervision and motivation; and performance and quality improvement. The top four FP/RH topics were adolescent RH, FP/MCH integration, community-based FP, and FP/HIV integration. (See PowerPoint for breakdown by job function for all findings)

Technology and Tools results:

• More people are online in all regions of the world;
• However, Africa and Asia still lag behind in infrastructure;
• Mobile phones are growing faster than other ICTs;
• Email continues to be widely used;
• Top 4 useful electronic resources were web search engines, databases, online training/e-learning, and CD-ROMs.

Network Results:

• Social networking is growing rapidly worldwide;
• Some of the professional networks mentioned by survey respondents: IBP, FIGO, GHC, HIPNet.

Barriers Results:

• Complaints about health information sources: materials are out of date, inappropriate, irrelevant, and/or costly; internet access is unavailable or expensive; limited access to meetings, medical societies; providers are too busy; lack of a reading culture; information overload.

Key Findings from HIPNet Member Organizations:

• Knowledge sharing rarely reaches to frontline providers and mgrs;
• Heavy reliance on informal feedback to assess needs and judge success of products;
• Email is primary means of communication; dissemination primarily through Web;
• Internal CoPs – very useful
• Positive experience with wikis and web-conferencing;
• Great interest in mobile and video, but not sure how to best utilize them;
• Generational divide regarding Web 2.0 tools;
• Tend to rely on few trusted websites/listservs; prefer networks with narrow focus;
• Few networks mentioned by more than one person: IBP, Core Group, HIPNet;
• Field office staff promote knowledge sharing by joining local taskforces, working groups, professional groups; local networking almost exclusively done face-to-face.

Implications:

• Don't migrate too quickly to "new" technologies;
• Anticipate and address bandwidth issues;
• Explore mobile devices; consider voice, video, texting, and web-based apps;
• Embrace social networking sites as model, if not a platform;
• Use face-to-face and virtual interaction to reinforce one another;
• Work with local intermediaries to extend reach of Internet;
• Package same content in multiple formats;
• Collaborate with local partners to move info the "last mile."
• Meet needs for local content through adaptation of materials and training of local people to create own content; promote knowledge sharing between countries and recruit information specialists to help
• Conduct needs assessments and M&E; rely on "pull" models that respond to audience's information needs; assess both perceived and real needs; systematically evaluate use of information products.

For more information:

Small group discussion and report back on challenges, new issues, and what you'd like to see at HIPNet – Three groups were formed, each led by a HIPNet co-chair, to discuss suggestions for upcoming topics for HIPNet meetings and how HIPNet can improve and better serve its members.

• Social media – not just technology but content and how to evaluate impact.
• Create a health information needs assessment handbook in which all instruments for Needs Assessment are collected as a repository.
• How to develop relevant communication messages for your audiences?
• How do we get people in-country to replicate what is being done on a global level (adaptation)? How do we support field-level information officers; what are their needs?
• How do we explain what we do? Also, IBP seems like an ideal social networking platform for public health professionals; it has many of the necessary tools and features already—we could integrate our resources into it.
• What technical areas are people interested in? Who has what on knowledge uptake? Perhaps we could package something and produce it as a HIPNet roduct.
• What about the idea of getting joint funding to produce HIPNet products? How about the idea of HIPNet as a trade organization; more formal than what it is now?
• Form subgroups around topics within HIPNet. This might encourage non-communication specialists to participate. Subgroups could flesh out ideas and bring them back to the main group.
• USAID has working groups on technical areas. Perhaps we could send communications representatives to each of their meetings. They could provide input and leverage HIPNet organizations' resources.
• Look at information/communication officers and libraries at the field level. What do they need? How can we work with them? EngenderHealth has experience – how local level adapts information, guides.
• The concept of the USAID Help Desk is in the very early stages. The needs assessment will show if there is a need for this or not. The idea is that technical specialists would answer questions submitted by officers at USAID Missions.
• The Core Group is an example of a strong network that is more formalized than HIPNet.
• Considering joint product on knowledge utilization, creation to promoting and adapting use of Best Practices. A lot exists that’s published. We could pull it together. Start with inventory of what exists.

Small Group 2 (Laura Raney)

• Knowledge management (KM) and KM strategy: who has a KM strategy? USAID does, but it's not related to health. 
• We need to get specific information on the USAID Knowledge-Sharing Task Force.
• Knowledge mapping: develop one-pagers on each organization and what they do, then post these on the HIPNet website, with contacts in each organization and their interests/proficiencies.
• Develop a list of terminology for job descriptions.
• Use IBP (or Google Groups) for CoPs.
• Maintain a list of translators, printers, graphic designers (we have started this).
• Indicators for social networking—how do we measure their effect?

Small Group 3 (Neha Suchak)

• How do we use social media? What is it? How are other people using it?
• Using Video: successes, field experiences, and consent and rights issues.
• Storytelling for website/video/build presentations.
• Repackaging information: pulling out older materials and revisiting them; developing a dissemination strategy.
• mHealth: what are others doing? What are successes and pilots.
• Updating the listserv.
• What is a Community of Practice (CoP) and what makes it successful? What experiences have people had with them?
• Online meetings: What are different technologies available (Skype, Adobe Connect), and what are positives and negatives of each.
• Translation of existing or new materials. For major translations, what market companies go with: a recent model involves maintaining a worldwide pool of contracted translators to who requests for translation of words or phrases are broadcast to by email. Received responses are reviewed and the majority translation is chosen. Participating translators receive incentives, e.g. cell phone credits.

Updates

HIPNet Library Mailing: The HIPNet Library mailing started in 2005. Organizations can send materials such as tools, CD-ROMs, reports. By combining publications, HIPNet participating organizations realized a total cost savings of $27,820 in 2005. The mailing is organized by JHU/CCP which maintains a list of libraries for English, Spanish, and French. The 2006 mailing, to over 430 libraries and resource centers, realized a cost savings in postage of $53,283. The 2007 mailing went to over 500 locations with a cost savings of $26,560. The next mailing is planned for early fall 2009. Please contact Heather Johnson for more information, hjohnson@jhuccp.org. Shipping rates are $3.85/lb. If you have suggestions for libraries or resource centers, please send those also to Heather. JHU/CCP will be contacting those previously involved in the mailings to see what locations want to continue receiving mailings. 

Journal subscription consortium for CAs in order to negotiate a lower price from vendors – if anyone is interested, please contact Neha Suchak, Neha_Suchak@abtassoc.com.

Publication sharing

Measure DHS: It's the 25^th Anniversary of Measure DHS. There's a new DVD of resources from 2003-2008. Also new marketing materials and pens, a new publications catalog, HIV Data Sheet, Mapping for Improved Health Data Sheet (on using GIS), updated list of DHS surveys, and an update to STATcompiler online.

MSH: New branding is complete. Brochures are available for download: www.msh.org.

PRB: 4^th edition of Family Planning Saves Lives and new policy brief, Family Planning and Economic Well-being: New Evidence from Bangladesh.

Pop Council: FRONTIERS legacy topics now online: www.popcouncil.org/frontiers. There is also a new gender document being translated from Spanish, available end of June. Comment published in March 2009 issue of International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health by Pop Council president John Bongaarts with Steven W. Sinding of Guttmacher Institute, titled "A Response to Critics of Family Planning Programs." Also: Program Briefs from Ethiopia;

Female-initiated Prevention: Integrating Female Condoms into HIV Risk-reduction Activities in Kenya; and The Overlooked Epidemic: Addressing HIV Prevention and Treatment among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Sub-Saharan Africa.

CARE: article published in May 2009 issue of Global Public Health: "Addressing social factors of adolescent reproductive health in the Republic of Georgia." New one-pager marketing material geared toward potential donors (non-technical). And Voices from the Village: Improving lives through CARE's sexual and reproductive health programs : Keneya Ciwara: Supporting family planning in Mali.

FHI: Male Circumcision Website www.malecircumcision.org. Soft launch was picked up by NY Times and continues to drive large amounts of traffic to the site.

FHI recently entered into a contract to write articles on contraception for Medpedia (www.medpedia.com). Only physicians can write articles, but FHI welcomes submissions of easy-to-read basic information on a given topic.

Next Meeting:  "Social Media" @ URC offices - date to be announced shortly.

Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.