A patient living miles from the nearest health facility takes a blood test and sends the results electronically to a healthcare provider. Within minutes, a doctor can assess the patient’s condition and determine whether urgent hospitalization is necessary or whether remote monitoring will suffice.

Though still emerging, such innovations are already being explored at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). They exemplify how digital systems and high-quality data are reshaping healthcare delivery while helping health systems better prepare for future disease outbreaks and pandemics.

It was against this backdrop that health experts, researchers, postgraduate students, policymakers, and representatives from government and private sector institutions in Kenya and the United States gathered at a graduate seminar jointly organized by JKUAT and Indiana University Indianapolis on Thursday, May 28, 2026.

The event was held under the ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) project, spearheaded by Dr. Eddy Odari, an infectious disease expert in the Department of Medical Microbiology at JKUAT, in partnership with the Fairbanks School of Public Health at Indiana University Indianapolis (FSPH – IU Indianapolis).

The collaboration is anchored on a memorandum of intent signed in 2024 and seeks to strengthen healthcare delivery through technology-enabled knowledge sharing, mentorship, and research collaboration.

ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is an initiative that enables health workers at local clinics or health centres to connect virtually with inter-disciplinary specialist teams and learn how to handle, complex and chronic health conditions. This therefore eases the patient’s burden without always referring them to higher-level hospitals, which are often far.

Speaking during the opening session in Juja, the Vice Chancellor JKUAT Prof. Victoria Ngumi, represented by Prof. Hiram Ndiritu, noted that the ECHO partnership with FSPH – IU Indianapolis has had significant, visible community impact through hospital-based interventions.

These include support for microbiological analysis of donor milk at Pumwani Hospital and the development of AI-integrated infrastructure for neonatal vital signs monitoring at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital (MLKH), which has contributed to a reduction in neonatal deaths at the facility.

Prof. Ndiritu also noted that the College of Engineering (COETEC) is collaborating with the same institution in biomedical engineering, to strengthen healthcare delivery by supporting the development of tools and innovations that complement the work of health workers.

Prof. Sherri Bucher, Chairperson of the Department of Community and Global Health at Indiana University Indianapolis, commended JKUAT for its strategic partnerships with key health institutions and for the progress made under the ECHO programme.

She highlighted achievements including the delivery of three ECHO sessions on topics such as skin cancer, faculty exchange programmes led by Dr. Reuben Thuo, Principal of the College of Health Sciences (COHES), and Dr. Eddy Odari, as well as the generation of peer-reviewed publications.

Prof. Bucher further lauded JKUAT’s commitment to digital innovation, noting that its ECHO Superhub has emerged as an important regional resource for knowledge sharing and capacity building among healthcare professionals across East Africa.

The seminar discussions focused on Kenya’s health system under the Ministry of Health, highlighting key challenges within the healthcare sector and exploring opportunities to enhance efficiency and service delivery.

Ms. Hellen Mwai, Director of Nursing Services at MLKH, emphasized the need to transition from paper-based documentation to fully digital systems. She noted that, in the context of high patient volumes and persistent staffing constraints across health facilities, digitalization would help ease pressure on healthcare workers, improve workflow efficiency, and strengthen coordination of care.

Highlighting notable progress, Dr. Peter Mogoi from Nairobi County Health pointed to their implementation of the Electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS), a digital health platform under the Ministry of Health’s digital transformation agenda aimed at strengthening community-level healthcare delivery.

The system reduces reliance on paper-based records by enabling Community Health Promoters (CHPs) to digitally register households, capture basic health information, track service delivery, and facilitate referrals to appropriate health facilities and specialists.

This need for digitization was further underscored by Dr. Fredrick Ouma from the Kenya National Public Health Institute (KNPHI), who noted that emerging public health threats must be addressed to safeguard health security. He explained that cross-border movement, climate change, and rapid urbanization are reshaping disease patterns, making preparedness a national security priority.

He highlighted that between 2007 and 2022, Kenya has experienced outbreaks of several epidemic-prone diseases, including conjunctivitis (red eye), Marburg virus disease, Ebola, and mpox, among others. This underscores the need for sustained investment in surveillance systems, response capacity, and digital health infrastructure.

To strengthen preparedness and response, he emphasized the importance of rapid information sharing, improved operational linkages between laboratories and surveillance systems, and integrated public health data systems.

In addition to the ECHO initiative, JKUAT has been actively engaged in the digital health space since 2016 through the Digital Health Applied Research Centre (DHARC), led by Prof. Simon Karanja. The Centre has played a key role in advancing digital health innovation and research, including supporting responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

JKUAT, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and partners such as Intellisoft and Indiana University, has also contributed to the development of the Kenya Digital Health Certification Laboratory (Kenya dCERT Alliance). This initiative focuses on strengthening quality assurance, safety, and interoperability of digital health solutions, supporting the Ministry of Health in building more reliable and standards-based digital health systems.

Prof. Karanja however noted that Kenya’s digital health landscape remains largely fragmented, with limited integration of systems and challenges in ensuring seamless data flow into a unified national database. Addressing this fragmentation, he emphasized, is critical for achieving a fully coordinated and efficient digital health ecosystem.