Liberia-mHero-eIDSR-Documentation

Introduction and Overview

mHero is a free SMS mobile phone based communications system between MOH staff,Health Workers and Community Health Workers. This is achieved by the interoperability between Intrahealth's iHRIS (or any HRIS with CSD compliant) and UNICEF's Rapidpro and utilizing the OpenHIE architecture. The platform uses health workforce data to target specific communications based on cadre,location and other information. Communications, which can be triggered both centrally and locally, go far beyond traditional “message blasts” offered by many technology vendors. Real-time monitoring, complex multi-path surveys, monitoring and detailed analysis can be conducted with ease. This tutorial will use iHRIS as a HRIS. Addition of disease surveillance component into mHero is what creates eIDSR.

This documentation will concentrate on the connection of iHRIS, openInfoMan, Rapidpro to make mHero and then the connection of Sync Server (Disease surveillance system) into mHero to extend it mHero to eIDSR. Below is a sequence diagram of what the documentation will cover.

Brief overview of Components

1. iHRIS-it is an integrated Human Resource Information System which is used to track and manage health workforce data.
2. Rapidpro-is a free and open source framework designed to send and receive data using basic mobile phones, manage complex workflows, automate analysis and present data in real-time.
3. Health Worker Registry/openInfoman - It is an OpenHIE component used to bring health workforce information together from variety of sources and represent that information in a common format against a common standard in order to facilitate the use of health workforce information across the health information system. Health Worker Registry is implemented by Openinfoman,this documentation will be using the two terminologies interchangeably.
4. OpenHIM - a component that provides security and access control mechanisms for mHero

About the OpenHIM

OpenHIM stands for the Open Health Information Mediator. The OpenHIM is an interoperability layer: a software component that eases integration between disparate information systems by connecting client and infrastructure components together. Its role is to provide a facade to client systems - providing a single point-of-control for defining web service APIs and adapting and orchestrating requests between infrastructure services. While doing this the OpenHIM also provides extensive security and access control mechanisms that enables the user to protect personal information within an HIE. It also enables monitoring and alerting services to ensure that the HIE is always running optimally.

OpenHIM security and privacy

Privacy and security are vital components of a coherently designed HIE. The OpenHIM is a cornerstone on which HIEs are built and it specialises in managing the interfaces on which systems interact with the HIE and on which components of the HIE communicate with each other. Therefore, the OpenHIM employs a number of mechanisms to ensure that traffic to and from an HIE is kept private and secure.

The OpenHIM provides the following features to ensure that personal information is protected:

1. It makes it easy to ensure that traffic coming to the HIE or within it is encrypted. It does this by providing a certificate management facilities.
2. It provides authentication mechanisms to ensure that only systems that are known and trusted can access the HIE services.
3. It provides access control mechanisms to ensure that only systems that actually need access to certain services are allowed to access them.

How the OpenHIM fits into the mHero architecture

Within the context of mHero, the OpenHIM performs a few vital functions.

1. It triggers the synchronization between iHRIS, OpenInfoMan and Rapidpro.
2. It provides visibility into the messages being exchanged. This allows the user to ensure that the data exchange is occurring correctly.
3. It ensures that the communication between components occurs securely and it logs the transactions for historical and audit purposes.
4. It provides authentication and authorisation mechanisms to control access to the OpenInfoMan documents

The OpenHIM provides polling channels to trigger the synchronization between iHRIS and the OpenInfoMan. These polling channels execute periodically and trigger an mHero mediator which in turn pulls data out of the OpenInfoMan and pushes it into RapidPro. To learn more about polling channels please see the OpenHIM docs here.

The OpenHIM provides a web console that enables the user to view these synchronization message. This enables any problems to be debugged effectively and provides confidence that the synchronization is working effectively.

The OpenHIM was designed to protect an HIE by providing mechanisms to secure transactions between various components of the HIE. It can ensure that requests that access certain OpenInfoMan documents come from known and authorised sources.

Within mHero, the OpenInfoMan contains a number of documents which contain health worker and facility information. The OpenHIM prevents unauthorised access to these documents by implementing a role-based access control mechanism. This allows documents with sensitive information to be secured and documents with non-sensitive information to be as open and accessible as necessary.