10 research outputs found
Leon Laizer Watters
No full textLeon L. Watters was a Utah-born scientist, industrialist, and author from an early Jewish pioneer community in Salt Lake City. He is shown here with a colleague of his, Albert Einstein
Leon Laizer Watters
No full textImage show Leon L. Watters (far left) at Pioneer Day Celebration in Logan, Utah with Governor Dern. Leon L. Watters was a Utah-born scientist, industrialist, and author from an early Jewish pioneer community in Salt Lake City
Leon Laizer Watters
No full textLeon L. Watters was a Utah-born scientist, industrialist, and author from an early Jewish pioneer community in Salt Lake City. He is shown here with a colleague of his, Albert Einstein
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 12TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON MANAGEMENT, LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE (ECMLG 2016)
No full textThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the integrated financial management information system (IFMIS) in Tanzania's Local Authorities. In the 1990s, Sub-Saharan African governments and other developing countries embarked on plans to automate their business processes. Public financial management is one of the areas that were automated. The first author has been involved in the evaluation of IFMIS in the governments of Lesotho and Malawi. He has also provided IFMIS support to the Tanzania's Local Authorities and Namibia Tender Board. During these assignments, different data related to IFMIS success and challenges were collected. The methods used for data collection were; desk review i.e. reviewing documents related to business processes analysis, functional requirements, user acceptance tests, government-vendor contracts, reports produced from systems, project charter, and other documents related to IFMIS. We also conducted interviews with different users confirming their involvement and the use of IFMIS. Vendors were also interviewed to find out the approaches used in system design and implementation. System access was adopted to see the actual settings such as payments, budget rules, user matrix, and chart of accounts, budget planning and management. IFMIS has been implemented for more than 18 years in Tanzania; however, some important objectives are yet to be realized. This study uses data collected in 2012 from Tanzania's Local Authorities; the first author worked with Local Authorities as an ICT consultant. The main challenges of IFMIS that were identified are related to interoperability, systems proliferation, running manual and automated systems in parallel, a lack of IFMIS policies, a lack of standards and principles. Among the main objectives of IFMIS are timely and accurate reports for making decisions related to finance management. Furthermore, IFMIS reports are supposed to support the process of building transparency, accountability, and the reduction of corruption within governments. The current challenges facing IFMIS hinder the achievement of its core objectives. The study adopted System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) as a tool for evaluating the IFMIS used by Tanzania's Local Authorities
Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information Systems Management
No full text
The purpose of this
study is to evaluate Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS)
in Malawi local governments. In 2009, Malawi Government decided to automate public
finance management (PFM) in all 36 sites of local governments. The government acquired and installed Serenic
Navigator Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
Among the main objectives of IFMIS is to ensure effective control and
proper accountability over allocation and utilization of government resources. Eight
years after implementation of IFMIS in Malawi local governments, there are
still critical challenges in PFM. First of all, IFMIS is still used as an
accounting package rather than an ERP.
There are delays in production of reports from the system and the
reports lack credibility. The other
challenge is over expenditure on budget items, but Serenic Navigator is one of
ERP with strong internal controls. This study finds out these challenges and
their sources. The first author was involved in the data collection from 15 IFMIS
sites in 2015. The data collection adopted the following methods; desk review
i.e. reviewing documents related to business processes analysis, tender
documents, functional requirements, user acceptance tests, government-vendor
contracts, reports produced from the systems, project charter, and other
documents related to IFMIS. The team also conducted interviews with different
users such as district commissioners, financial controllers, procurement
officers, store/inventory officers, revenue officers, projects officers,
cashiers, and IT officers. Vendors were also interviewed to find out the approaches
used in system design, implementation and maintenance. The team accessed the
system through system administrators to check out audit trail, internal
controls (budget controls), and other configuration such as user matrix, and
chart of accounts, budget planning and management. Findings such as many system
administrators, untrained users, unused modules, important process that are not
automated, lack of systems interfaces, lack of IT policies and sharing of
passwords contribute to the inefficiency of Malawian local governments IFMIS. This study will add new insights to the field
of e-government research, especially on the challenges caused by approached
adopted in design, implementation and maintenance of IFMIS. </p
Preparedness of health facilities in managing hypertension & diabetes mellitus in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania: a cross sectional study.
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Hypertension and Diabetes mellitus are risk factors for cardiovascular diseases that cause 17 million deaths globally. Many of these deaths could have been prevented if hypertensive and diabetic patients had their blood pressure and glucose controlled. Less than 30% of hypertensive and diabetic patients on management have controlled their blood pressure and glucose respectively. This study aimed to determine the preparedness of health facilities in managing hypertensive and diabetic patients in terms of personnel; laboratory services provision, and local use of routinely collected data, and shows differences in preparedness between the levels of facilities. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study in Government, faith-based and private health facilities in two districts in Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania from March to July 2017. We collected data through interviews and observations on the preparedness of the facilities for managing hypertension and DM. RESULTS: Forty-three (43) health facilities and 62 healthcare workers (HCW) participated in the survey. Services for hypertension and DM were available in 37 (86%) and 34 (79%) health facilities respectively. Eighteen (53%) and five (15%) facilities had HCW trained on hypertension and DM management respectively within two years preceding the survey. Regular adherence to treatment guideline was reported in 18 (53%) of the health facilities. More than third of health facilities were without basic equipment for managing hypertension and DM. All the recommended laboratory tests were only available in four (15%) hospitals and one health center. Valid first line medicines for both hypertension and DM were available in six (50%) health centers, four (24%) dispensaries and in four (80.0%) hospitals. Health data collection, analysis and local use for planning were reported in all hospitals, nine (75%) health centers and four (24%) dispensaries. CONCLUSIONS: Health facilities are not fully prepared to manage hypertension and DM. Health centers and dispensaries are mostly affected levels of health facilities. Government interventions to improve facility factors and collaborative approaches to build capacity to HCW are needed to enable health facilities be responsive to these diseases
Landscaping the evidence of intimate partner violence and postpartum depression: a systematic review
Get PDFOBJECTIVE: To assess the evidence of the association between exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) and postpartum depression. IPV during pregnancy can have immediate and long-term physical and mental health consequences for the family. Therefore, it has been hypothesised that IPV may affect the risk of developing postpartum depression. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. PubMed, Embase, Global Health Library, Scopus and Google scholar were searched for published studies without restrictions on language, time or study design (up to May 2020). Studies were included if they assessed postpartum depression using the Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale (cut-off≥10), among women who had been exposed to IPV (emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse). The quality of studies was judged according to the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. RESULTS: A total of 33 studies were included in the review (participants n=131 131). The majority of studies found an association between exposure to IPV and the development of signs of postpartum depression. Overall, studies measured both exposure and outcome in various ways and controlled for a vast number of different confounders. Thirty percent of the studies were set in low-income and lower-middle-income countries while the rest were set in upper-middle-income and high-income countries and the association did not differ across settings. Among the studies reporting adjusted OR (aOR) (n=26), the significant aOR ranged between 1.18 and 6.87 (95% CI 1.12 to 11.78). The majority of the studies were judged as ‘good quality’ (n=20/33). CONCLUSION: We found evidence of an association between exposure to IPV and the development of signs of postpartum depression. Meta-analysis or individual patient data meta-analysis is required to quantify the magnitude of the association between IPV and postpartum depression. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020209435
Rifapentine and isoniazid for prevention of tuberculosis in people with diabetes (PROTID): protocol for a randomised controlled trial.
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) increases the risk of tuberculosis (TB) and will hamper global TB control due to the dramatic rise in type 2 DM in TB-endemic settings. In this trial, we will examine the efficacy and safety of TB preventive therapy against the development of TB disease in people with DM who have latent TB infection (LTBI), with a 12-week course of rifapentine and isoniazid (3HP). METHODS: The 'Prevention of tuberculosis in diabetes mellitus' (PROTID) consortium will randomise 3000 HIV-negative eligible adults with DM and LTBI, as evidenced by a positive tuberculin skin test or interferon gamma release assay, to 12 weeks of 3HP or placebo. Participants will be recruited through screening adult patients attending DM clinics at referral hospitals in Tanzania and Uganda. Patients with previous TB disease or treatment with a rifamycin medication or isoniazid (INH) in the previous 2 years will be excluded. The primary outcome is the occurrence of definite or probable TB disease; secondary outcome measures include adverse events, all-cause mortality and treatment completion. The primary efficacy analysis will be intention-to-treat; per-protocol analyses will also be carried out. We will estimate the ratio of TB incidence rates in intervention and control groups, adjusting for the study site using Poisson regression. Results will be reported as efficacy estimates (1-rate ratio). Cumulative incidence rates allowing for death as a competing risk will also be reported. Approximately 1000 LTBI-negative, HIV-negative participants will be enrolled consecutively into a parallel cohort study to compare the incidence of TB in people with DM who are LTBI negative vs positive. A number of sub-studies will be conducted among others to examine the prevalence of LTBI and active TB, estimate the population impact and cost-effectiveness of LTBI treatment in people living with DM in these African countries and address gaps in the prevention and therapeutic management of combined TB-DM. DISCUSSION: PROTID is anticipated to generate key evidence to guide decisions over the use of TB preventive treatment among people with DM as an important target group for better global TB control. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04600167 . Registered on 23 October 2020
Indicators of optimal diabetes care and burden of diabetes complications in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Get PDFOBJECTIVE: Contemporary data on the attainment of optimal diabetes treatment goals and the burden of diabetes complications in adult populations with type 2 diabetes in Africa are lacking. We aimed to document the current status of attainment of three key indicators of optimal diabetes care and the prevalence of five diabetes complications in adult African populations with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: We systematically searched Embase, PubMed and the Cochrane library for published studies from January 2000 to December 2020. Included studies reported any information on the proportion of attainment of optimal glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), blood pressure (BP) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) goals and/or prevalence of five diabetes complications (diabetic peripheral neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy, foot ulcers and peripheral arterial disease). Random effect model meta-analysis was performed to determine the pooled proportion of attainment of the three treatment goals and the prevalence of five diabetes complications. RESULTS: In total, 109 studies with a total of 63 890 participants (53.3% being females) were included in the meta-analysis. Most of the studies were conducted in Eastern African countries (n=44, 40.4%). The pooled proportion of attainment of an optimal HbA1c, BP and LDLC goal was 27% (95% CI 24 to 30, I2=94.7%), 38% (95% CI 30 to 46, I2=98.7%) and 42% (95% CI 32 to 52, I2=97.4%), respectively. The pooled prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy, peripheral arterial disease and foot ulcers was 38% (95% CI 31 to 45, I2=98.2%), 32% (95% CI 28 to 36, I2=98%), 31% (95% CI 22 to 41, I2=99.3%), 19% (95% CI 12 to 25, I2=98.1%) and 11% (95% CI 9 to 14, I2=97.4%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Attainment of optimal diabetes treatment goals, especially HbA1c, in adult patients with type 2 diabetes in Africa remains a challenge. Diabetes complications, especially diabetic peripheral neuropathy and retinopathy, are highly prevalent in adult populations with type 2 diabetes in Africa
Abstracts of Tanzania Health Summit 2020
Get PDFThis book contains the abstracts of the papers/posters presented at the Tanzania Health Summit 2020 (THS-2020) Organized by the Ministry of Health Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDGEC); President Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PORALG); Ministry of Health, Social Welfare, Elderly, Gender, and Children Zanzibar; Association of Private Health Facilities in Tanzania (APHFTA); National Muslim Council of Tanzania (BAKWATA); Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC); & Tindwa Medical and Health Services (TMHS) held on 25–26 November 2020. The Tanzania Health Summit is the annual largest healthcare platform in Tanzania that attracts more than 1000 participants, national and international experts, from policymakers, health researchers, public health professionals, health insurers, medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, private health investors, supply chain experts, and the civil society. During the three-day summit, stakeholders and decision-makers from every field in healthcare work together to find solutions to the country’s and regional health challenges and set the agenda for a healthier future.
Summit Title: Tanzania Health SummitSummit Acronym: THS-2020Summit Date: 25–26 November 2020Summit Location: St. Gasper Hotel and Conference Centre in Dodoma, TanzaniaSummit Organizers: Ministry of Health Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDGEC); President Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PORALG); Ministry of Health, Social Welfare, Elderly, Gender and Children Zanzibar; Association of Private Health Facilities in Tanzania (APHFTA); National Muslim Council of Tanzania (BAKWATA); Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC); & Tindwa Medical and Health Services (TMHS)
