Sylvia Iradukunda: Here is why I joined the GEEKS Fellowship

Ms. Sylvia Iradukunda is one of the 21 fellows enrolled in Cohort 3 of the Growing Expertise in E-Health Knowledge and Skills (GEEKS) Fellowship that is currently underway in Uganda. Sylvia supports monitoring and evaluation work under the Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunization (UNEPI) at the health ministry.

After the recent completion of Tier 1 of the two planned during the year-long fellowship we spoke to her and below are excerpts from the interview.

What motivated you to join GEEKS Fellowship?

 I met previous GEEKS fellows and saw that they were a bit better than me, much as we were at the same level of our academic training. But the fact that they had gone through the GEEKS program, they were a bit better than me in terms of hands-on skills in data analysis. So, that alone motivated me to be part so that I can also enhance my skills in that area.

Can you share a personal experience where you felt the impact of limited e-health knowledge in your work?

Yeah, it is still in line with analysis. You know, when it comes to presentation of your analysis and interpretation, there comes a bit of how you present whatever findings you have. So, the former fellows of GEEKS are good at presenting their findings like through visualizations, drawing maps, presenting style, generally the use of technology.

Whereas for me, I was still using Excel, making tables. So, I felt like I wish I also knew how to come up with those visuals myself. That would speak better than just presenting tables and over explaining because the visuals simplify the way you deliver a message.

How do you think e-health can help transform healthcare delivery in Uganda?

I feel like e-health would simplify the process of data capture. In most cases, we have fewer health workers who have a volume of work to do, so many patients lined up. And then you must rely on a paper-based system to capture data, which is hard, and then follow up and retrieve all those things. So, if we had a digitized health information system, that would simplify the workflows at the health facility. And it would also help improve the data quality and reporting.

What’s the most exciting thing you’ve learned in this initial training, and how do you plan to apply it?

One thing this training has done is to teach me to be open-minded. There are so many things around us that we can use to improve our work.

I didn’t know that the Tickler Box system, simple as it is, could be that efficient in helping us to do the tracking, following up on patients, and improving our data quality. So, one thing I’m so excited about is learning more about the Tickler Box system and more innovations that we can make.

The other thing that I’m excited about is networking. I understand that GEEKS is a wide program, spanning all over the world. And with that exposure, I’m also hoping to learn new technologies in e-health.