Dr. Abla El-Alfy, Deputy Minister of Health and Population for Population and Family Development and Supervisor of the National Population Council, chaired a coordination meeting with Dr. Amr Aayed, Assistant Minister of Health for Information Systems and Digital Transformation, to discuss the official launch of the DHIS2 Health Information System in Egypt. This initiative is a collaboration with UNICEF and the University of Oslo, supporting the Ministry of Health and Population's digital transformation efforts.
DHIS2 is a world-class, open-source software platform, the largest Health Management Information System (HMIS) in the world. It is used in more than 80 countries to collect, manage, analyze, and visualize health data at both aggregate and individual levels, offering high customization flexibility and ensuring full national data ownership.
This launch coincides with the commencement of a specialized training course on designing data models using DHIS2. The course is being implemented by the HISP MENA program in partnership with the Ministry and UNICEF, aiming to build national capacity and promote the sustainable local adoption of the system. Dr. Abla El-Alfy emphasized that DHIS2 represents a pivotal step towards building a comprehensive and sustainable national health information system. This system will enhance the tracking of health services and population programs in an integrated manner, and support the use of digital tools to measure performance and improve the quality of services provided to citizens, while ensuring the system's sustainability and building national capacity.
She noted the success of pilot projects in Egypt, particularly in tracking services for Sudanese migrants and injured Palestinians from Gaza, and converting data into accurate individual records. She also highlighted successful applications in tuberculosis control, monitoring child growth, and vaccine cold chains. She stressed the importance of integration between health systems and data protection to support evidence-based decision-making.
For his part, Dr. Amr Aayed explained that the launch of DHIS2 is part of a comprehensive national initiative that begins with a strategic vision for digital health and translates it into practical implementation tools. He pointed out that the system reflects the priorities of the National Digital Health Strategy 2025-2029 by improving data quality, standardizing indicators, building analytical dashboards, and transitioning to real-time data that supports decision-making. The Assistant Minister stressed that choosing DHIS2 – as a globally flexible open-source system – ensures full national ownership of data, compliance with governance, integration and privacy protection requirements, and indicated that the next phase will witness a gradual expansion in its use, intensification of capacity-building programs and the formation of specialized national teams, to enhance the health system’s readiness to face future challenges.