Scoping Health Data Opportunities to Improve Eye Health Data Collection, Quality and Use. At Fred Hollows Foundation

1.INTRODUCTION
The Fred Hollows Foundation (FHF) is a secular non-profit public health organization based in Australia, founded in 1992 by eminent eye surgeon Professor Fred Hollows. The Foundation focuses on strengthening eye health systems and the treatment and prevention of avoidable blindness. Operating in more than 25 countries across Australia, the Pacific, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa, The Foundation’s 2024 strategy calls for bold, transformative action to accelerate progress towards ending avoidable blindness and multiplying our impact.

Eye health is a growing priority in many low resource settings, with billions of people suffering from preventable or treatable eye health conditions such as cataracts and refractive error. The increasing prevalence of eye health issues worldwide necessitates the establishment of robust data frameworks and investments to ensure quality data is available and used to inform effective interventions and policymaking.

While strides have been made in addressing these issues, data- driven solutions remain underutilised in efforts to increase investments, and improve outcomes, in eye health. Globally, there is limited national, population level data to drive increased political action at the global level and a persistent challenge with the availability, collection and use of reliable disaggregated data within health information systems for decision-making and planning at the country (and facility) level.

2. PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
In the 2024 FHF Strategy, we are challenged to look outside the box of traditional eye health programs for bold, transformative actions that accelerate progress towards ending avoidable blindness. These solutions should multiply our impact and will require a different and more targeted approach to the collection and use of quality, real time eye health data.

Tried and tested innovations in other health areas, such as maternal and child health or infectious diseases and immunisation, could provide new opportunities to enhance approaches to collecting and using health data to advocate for investments in quality eye health care programs and thus FHF is commissioning a scoping review focused on best practice health data approaches and solutions in other public health areas.

Goal: The primary objective of this consultancy is to explore existing health data systems, tools and approaches in other health sectors that have resulted in evidence-based solutions which improved the approach, and quality, of health data collection and use for decision making, advocacy, policy and planning.
The focus will be on identifying contextual and system requirements from the explored and recommended approaches, to better understand the ecosystem elements that drove success. These will then be applied to the eye health context in order to make recommendations.

Suggested Approach:

• Conduct a gap analysis of existing eye health data systems, identifying critical areas for improvement and key challenges related to the lack of reliable, disaggregated real-time data. Identify value-add through the adoption of best practice from other health sectors.
• Scope, analyze, and recommend innovative, scalable, and sustainable best practices from other health sectors that have transformed the collection, management, and use of real-time, disaggregated health data for advocacy and planning. This includes mapping and assessing existing and innovative health data systems, tools, and approaches that could be applicable to eye health, evaluated against a developed consideration matrix with criteria for sustainability, adaptability, and scalability, especially in low-resource settings. Highlight where integration of technology has played a key role in these successes, however digital health solutions are not the focus of this consultancy. Concrete examples should be provided.
• Identify key ecosystem and contextual requirements, such as infrastructure, policy and regulation, partnerships, and capacity development, that have enabled successful data collection and use in other health sectors. Detail the specific challenges, limitations, and considerations that may impact the adoption or relevance of these approaches for eye health including recommendations for building the necessary capacity and investment to apply these ecosystem factors to improve eye health data collection and use.

Out of Scope:
The Foundation is aware of the key gaps in eye health data collection approaches and use across the sector and within member states including inconsistent and incomplete data collection systems, investment, resources and capacity resulting in data that often isn’t appropriately disaggregated, causing limitations when addressing inequalities. Furthermore, in many contexts, eye health data is frequently collected in isolation from national health systems, leading to fragmented and incomplete data sets and reporting at the local, national and global level. The lack of mandated data collection approaches and processes along with limited use of digital health tools and technologies, coupled with the shortages of trained personnel and available resources hampers real time data collection, use and analysis for the eye health sector. And even when data is available, it is rarely utilised for policy making and advocacy efforts due to weak data governance structures and policies and a lack of consistent longitudinal data.

Further exploration and analysis of the above limitations in eye health data collection is outside of the scope of this consultancy, given these limitations are well known to The Foundation.

3. MILESTONES, DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINE
The project is expected to start in November 2024 for an estimated duration of 14 days of work. The
proposed timeline and the review milestones and deliverables are listed below:

Deliverables and Milestones

Timing

Milestone 1: Initiation meeting to discuss and finalise project scope, objectives, inputs, approach and deliverables.
1 day

Milestone 2: Finalisation of contract
Following initial meeting, timing dependent on respective contracting timelines and process.

Milestone 3: Establish a draft consideration matrix/framework to scoping work.
2 days

Milestones 4: Desk review, gap analysis and problem statement (root cause), opportunity mapping and
analysis.
5 days

Milestone 5: Facilitated problem and opportunity analysis consultation with stakeholders against consideration framework. Aim to review and revise recommendations.
1 day

Milestone 7: Check-in meeting / workshop. Discuss findings and possible recommendations for piloting/testing. Make adjustments, consider feedback.
2 days

Milestone 8: Finalise report and submitted.

2 days

4. REVIEW TEAM & QUALIFICATIONS
The Foundation seeks to engage the services of an independent registered organisation or consultant,
who have following experiences and expertise.

Qualifications:

• The consultant or team lead must:
• Be registered as a business.
• Hold a university degree or equivalent in Public Health degree.

Experience:

• Extensive experience in supporting and delivering solutions across the health sector, both in public and private settings.
• At least 5 years’ experience in public health, international aid and development.
• Demonstrated experience working in low- and middle-income country settings.
• Demonstrated experienced working with NGOs.
• Demonstrated experience planning and implementing research and evaluations.

Skills:

• Research and evaluation design.
• Qualitative analysis of documents.
• Guidelines development.
• Sound understanding of health systems and health literacy.
• Interviewing for research and evaluation projects.
• Excellent written and English skills required or excellent analytical, writing and presentation skills.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.

6.CONFIDENTIALITY
The consultant/s agree to not divulge confidential information to any person for any reason during or
after completion of this contract with The Foundation. Upon completion or termination of this
contract, the evaluator/s undertake to return to The Foundation any materials, files or property in
their possession that relates to the business affairs of The Foundation.

7. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
All intellectual property and/or copyright material produced by the evaluator/s whilst under contract
to The Foundation remain the property of The Foundation and will not be shared with third parties
without the express permission of The Foundation. The evaluator/s are required to surrender any
copyright material created during the term of the contract to The Foundation upon completion or
termination of the contract.

8. INSURANCE
Any consultants involved in this project will be required to have in place insurance arrangements
appropriate to provision of the requirements in this Terms of Reference including travel insurance.

9. OTHER
The consultant/s are expected to maintain high professional and ethical standards, and comply with
The Foundation’s Research Ethics and Data Management Policy. The Foundation is committed to
ensuring a safe environment and culture for all people, including children, with whom we come in
contact during the course of our work. All members of the evaluation team will be required to comply
with The Foundation’s Safeguarding People Policy and sign the Safeguarding Code of Conduct.