Opening Session |
Nick Lorenz
Nicolaus Lorenz, Institutional capacity building and evaluation specialist.
Senior Public Health Specialist and Head of the Swiss Centre for International Health of the Swiss Tropical Institute. He has 20 years experience in international health cooperation and has worked at all levels in sub-Saharan Africa and in many countries of the former Eastern Block, including Central Asia and China.
Welcome to the 11th STI Symposium
Yunkap Kwankam
S. Yunkap Kwankam is Coordinator eHealth at WHO, where he is responsible for overall coordination of eHealth work across the Organization. His work covers issues such as development of a strategy for WHO's role in the improvement of health, locally, regionally and globally through the use of ICTs; development of appropriate frameworks and tools to support eHealth policy and practice, assisting countries in building national capacity for effective and efficient use of ICT in their health systems; and development of the evidence base and best practices in the area. Before coming to WHO in 2001, he was Profesor and Director of the Center for Health Technology at the University of Yaounde in Cameroon.
eHealth and health system development: WHO priority areas
After chemistry in the 19th century and physics in the 20th ICT is considered the third pillar of the health industry in the 21st century. There is a paradigm shift from health systems focused on curing disease in patients by health professionals in health care facilities, to a focus on the citizen – empowering him/her with information to maintain his health everywhere and at any time.
WHO has a six point agenda for addressing gaps and improving public health based on fundamental needs, strategic needs and operational approaches.