Israel launched his career with eHealth Africa’s Liberia office (eHA-L) more than 2 years ago, at the height of Liberia’s Ebola outbreak and in the fledgling days of our Monrovia-based operations.
Eager to do his part to slow the devastating spread of the virus, Israel signed up as an eHealth Africa volunteer. Capitalizing on his data entry and analysis skills, Israel trained staff at the National Ebola Call Center and Island Clinic, contributing to the launch of electronic sample reporting systems (a giant leap beyond the clinics’ previous paper-based records).
Given his success as a Data System Trainer, Israel was quickly offered an employment contract and became eHA-L’s inaugural Information Systems team member. New responsibilities led to valuable learning opportunities for Israel. Only months later, Israel’s supervisor identified that he possessed the qualities of a systems engineer, and he eagerly accepted a promotion to Junior Software Developer.
“My skills have grown more quickly than I would ever have imagined,” said Israel. From volunteer to trainer to eHA-Liberia’s newest professional developer, Israel’s career trajectory is certainly on the rise.
From entering data and upgrading Excel files and Google sheets, Israel now contributes to an Interoperable Health Information System. The system is the first of its kind, and it will allow disease surveillance data to be shared across the Liberian government’s sub-systems. The system’s implications are staggering in terms of policy-making capacities for Liberia’s Ministry of Health. They greatly improve early disease detection capabilities, which would be extremely valuable in the event of another outbreak.
Israel has played an integral role in the prevention of future disease outbreaks in Liberia by helping revolutionize paper-based sample collection methods, digitizing lab reporting, and launching state-of-the-art disease surveillance systems.
After two years on the Information Systems team, Israel conveys his pride to be part of eHA-L. During the outbreak, Israel was eager to be one of the “frontliners” in the fight against Ebola.
“I was always proud every time I received a call from other partners for eHA to intervene using tech devices in the response,” Israel said. “This demonstrated that eHA was doing something worthwhile”, he added.
Israel has already been recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for exemplary volunteer service, as well as by local media outlets for his contribution to his country’s health systems. In addition to working with eHA-L full time, Israel attends courses every evening and is well on his way to becoming a professional systems engineer. eHA-L is proud to have such a dedicated individual on our team.
“My responsibilities have opened my eyes to something new. I don’t think I can be more motivated than this any time soon.” - Israel