Carolina Health Informatics doctoral student, Manish Kumar, MPH, has been invited as a guest speaker to the 2019 Global South eHealth Observatory Conference being held on July 1, 2019 in Lavaur, Tarn in France.
The Global South eHealth Observatory was started in 2015 by Fondation Pierre Fabre, a French foundation dedicated 
to enabling globally disadvantaged communities (politically, economically, and/or structurally from natural disaster) to access essential, every-day health care services and products. The Observatory came as part of an initiative to improve access to health care through technological means, as they could "help overcome many economic, geographical and social barriers to health care access and compensate for shortages of medical personnel" that is typically seen in disadvantaged communities. Specifically, the Observatory serves in identifying, documenting, promoting and developing e-health initiatives that improve access to quality care and medicines for the most disadvantaged populations in resource-limited countries in Africa and Asia.
The upcoming conference marks the 4th conference held by the Global South eHealth Observatory, with its inaugural 
conference having been held in 2016. The conference allows participants representing various international organizations, ministries, NGOs, healthcare institutions, academic institutions and companies to share their analyses and speak about proposed initiatives and solutions. Ultimately, the conference fosters dialogue surrounding the challenges of transforming health strategies and health care access through e-health and information system efficiency.
Kumar will be attending the upcoming conference as a guest speaker representing the University of North Carolina at 
Chapel Hill (UNC). He will participate in the panel on health information systems (HIS), a panel focusing on health data monitoring and quality. He will also conduct a workshop on the HIS Stages of Continuous Improvement (SOCI) Toolkit developed by the USAID-MEASURE Evaluation Project, a joint collaborative project between the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Health Data Collaborative digital health and interoperability working group, and the USAID-MEASURE Evaluation Project of UNC that resulted in the creation of a toolkit designed to help countries and organizations holistically assess, plan, and prioritize interventions and investments to strengthen HIS. Kumar currently serves as the Senior Technical Specialist for Health Systems Strengthening in the USAID-MEASURE Evaluation Project, where he helps to provide technical and capacity-building support for implementation of the Data for Accountability, Transparency and Impact Monitoring (DATIM) System of the United States Government in 58 developing countries.
Professionally, Kumar holds an MPH concentrated in the areas of public health leadership, public health informatics, 
international peace and conflict resolution from UNC. He is currently a doctoral student in the Health Informatics PhD program in association with the Carolina Health Informatics Program (CHIP), where his research interests include systems analysis, usability evaluation, implementation science and health system innovations. Kumar's upcoming presence at the 2019 Global South eHealth Observatory Conference represents an important professional achievement in his already promising career.
