摘要
This study explores the possibility of opening a policy window for the adoption of the FAIR Guidelines—that data be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable(FAIR)—in Uganda’s e Health sector. Although the FAIR Guidelines were not mentioned in any of the policy documents relevant to Uganda’s e Health sector, the study found that 83% of the documents mentioned FAIR Equivalent efforts, such as the adoption of the National Identification Number(NIN) as a unique identifier in Uganda’s national Electronic Health Management Information System(e HMIS)(findability), the planned/ongoing integration of various information systems(interoperability), and the alignment of various projects with international best practices/standards(reusability). A FAIR Equivalency Score(FE-Score), devised in this study as an aggregate score of the mention of the equivalent of FAIR facets in the policy documents, showed that the documents at the core of Uganda’s digital health/e Health policy have the highest score of all the documents analysed, indicating that there is a degree of alignment between Uganda’s National e Health Vision and the FAIR Guidelines. Therefore, it can be concluded that favourable conditions exist for the adoption and implementation of the FAIR Guidelines in Uganda’s e Health sector. Hence, it is recommended that the FAIR community adopt a capacity building strategy through organisations with a worldwide mandate, such as the World Health Organization, to promote the adoption of the FAIR Guidelines as part of international best practices.
基金
VODAN-Africa
the Philips Foundation
the Dutch Development Bank FMO
CORDAID
the GO FAIR Foundation for supporting this research
作者简介
Corresponding author:Mariam Basajja,Leiden University(Email:mariam.basajja@gmail.com,ORCID:0000-0001-7710-8843)
