HIFA has published a revised version of our HIFA Strategy 2022-2024. The original version was published in October 2021 and is under regular review.
The HIFA Steering Group has agreed a new specific priority: 'Convene key stakeholders to develop a Global Action Plan on Universal Access to Reliable Healthcare Information'.
The idea of a Gloal Action Plan has been discussed repeatedly on HIFA over the past 2 years. A high-level Global Action Plan would complement existing WHO-led plans such as the recent and transformative Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030. It would focus the efforts of the major players on how to improve the availability and use of reliable healthcare information. To be clear, there is as yet no formal agreement from WHO or any other major organisation to develop such a plan. Our first step would be to assess the feasibility of doing so, learning from our patient safety colleagues and looking also at other options to accelerate progress towards healthcare information for all.
HIFA is in a stronger position than ever to help make this happen. We have more than 20,000 members and 440 organisations worldwide committed to the HIFA Vision; the British Medical Association and World Medical Association have adopted healthcare information for all as official policy (in 2015 and 2019, respectively); and in 2022 the World Health Organization approved Global Healthcare Information Network/HIFA as a non-governmental organisation in official relations.
To drive this forward and implement the Strategy in full, HIFA needs £140k (US$160k) per year. This would support *all* our activities: two full-time staff equivalents, 6 global health forums, 19 projects, country representatives, social media team, HIFA Voices database, advocacy programme, secretariat...). It would also give us the capacity we need to deliver on our 3-year collaboration plan with WHO, agreed at the time of our entry into official relations.
Our biggest constraint is our funding. Our current income is only £50k (US$60k) per year. We have only one professional staff (NPW) and a part-time administrator (Clare Watts). We therefore need to raise an additional £85k (US$100k) per year to double or triple our capacity, implement the Strategy in full, deliver on the objectives of our 3-year collaboration plan with WHO, and accelerate progress towards universal access to reliable healthcare information.
Can you help? Please contact me with your thoughts, suggestions, questions: neil@hifa.org
With thanks for your support,
Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Global Coordinator HIFA, www.hifa.org neil@hifa.org
Global Healthcare Information Network/HIFA: Working in official relations with WHO
