Information Systems for Health consultant roster

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) is looking to expand the pool of consultants on health information systems (HIS). HIS consultants work under the supervision of the Coordinator, Information Systems for Health and the overall guidance of the Director, Science, Information and Dissemination. Consultants support WHO’s efforts to work with Member States to improve the availability, quality and use of health information at country and sub-national levels and to strengthen the evidence base at regional and global levels to monitor health, reduce inequalities in health and evaluate programme effectiveness. Work may be offered on a per-job basis to members of the pool, with remuneration based on our set rates. Membership of the pool of HIS consultants does not constitute employment with WHO and there is no guarantee that any HIS-related jobs will be offered to pool members.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Under the detailed supervision of the Coordinator, Information Systems for Health, the HIS consultants are expected to demonstrate proven expertise for each agreed job in the following core areas of work:

• Supporting countries to analyze large data sets from health examination surveys, other population-based and facility-based surveys to monitor health situation, trends, inequalities and determinants using global and regional standards.
• Supporting data analysis and statistical modelling of survey micro data and other observational studies.
• Synthesizing, generating and providing health information and statistics for evidence-informed policy formulation and decision-making at national and sub-national levels, with emphasis on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and universal health coverage, and national priorities.
• Conducting situation analysis of the core HIS components including Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems (CRVS) to identify gaps, set priorities for the improvement of HIS systems and co-develop evidence-based national HIS strategies.
• Support drafting, revision and further development of strategies, standards and tools to strengthen country CRVS systems.
• Support efforts related to CRVS strengthening, International Classification of Diseases 11th revision (ICD-11) implementation, Verbal Autopsy methods, cause of deaths analysis, data quality assessment and mortality estimations as well as production of Vital Statistics reports at national and sub-national levels.
• Support capacity building efforts on certification and reporting of causes of death and in analyzing causes of death reports for indicator development and burden of disease assessment.
• Support the development of the Regional Health Observatory (RHO) and National Health Observatories by integrating key datasets with the RHO data repository and content management systems.
• Contribute to the development of Geographic Information System (GIS)-based applications and systems;
• Supporting analysis of data and development of briefs and reports on several health-related SDG indicators.
• Development of hospital information systems, electronic health records and e-prescription systems.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential: A first university degree in medicine, biostatistics, epidemiology, public health, computer science, or any other relevant field.
Desirable: An advanced university degree in medicine, biostatistics, epidemiology, public health, computer science, or another relevant.

Experience

Essential: At least seven years’ professional experience (whether on a consultant or employed basis) of supporting countries to improve national HIS.
Desirable: Relevant experience combined at the national and international levels, in health information related areas such as health information systems, statistics, demography, epidemiology, GIS applications, health informatics, big data, mortality and causes of death estimation, survey design/implementation and surveillance. Experience providing technical advice to countries and conducting capacity building workshops in any of the above mentioned areas. Relevant WHO / UN experience. Working experience in developing countries and countries in emergency.

Use of language skills

Essential: Excellent knowledge of English. Knowledge of Arabic and/or French will be an asset.

Skills

Essential:

• Very good knowledge and technical expertise in implementation of interventions to improve national health information systems, hospital information systems, health informatics, statistics and big data.
• Excellent knowledge of the principles of epidemiology, biostatistics, survey design, implementation and analysis
• Good knowledge of demographic techniques and mortality analysis.
• Excellent analytical skills in health situation and trends analysis and statistical modelling.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Applications and statistical software, such as STATA and R.
• Ability to use web-development tools and language such as Javascript, Microsoft Structured Query Language (SQL) Server, T-SQL, and MS Access
• Considerable and practical experience in curating large-scale health informatics project, databases and use/knowledge of a web content management system .
• .Strong professional oral and writing skills in English including the development of reports, oral presentations and technical documents.

Additional information :

• All contractual assignments will be ad hoc and limited to the editing of the particular document or publication specified in each contract, Thus duration of assignment would vary based on programmatic requirements
• WHO EMRO’s rates for editing are fixed and non-negotiable.
• The performance and quality of the editorial output of freelance editors is subject to review by WHO EMRO’s Publishing, Editorial and Graphic Design unit.
• This selection is for contractual services only and does not give rise to any employment with or entitlement from WHO EMRO.
• There is no commitment from either side at this stage.
• Applications should be submitted through WHO's online recruitment portal only. Please visit www.who.int/careers to complete an online profile and to apply to this vacancy.
• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• In the event your candidature is retained for an assignment, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma (s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.
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