July Bhela: Configuration of Complex Health and Social Protection Products in openIMIS

The July 2025 Bhela meeting focused on configuring openIMIS for complex  healthcare protocols and programs. George Atohmbom Yuh opened the session by explaining how openIMIS is adapted to specific country contexts - ensuring that the software accurately reflects national healthcare delivery processes and protocols. This can be done through a classic or a complex configuration of openIMIS.

Reflecting a country’s own protocols and standards, the Classic openIMIS configuration pathway starts with the definition of the medical product and service, followed by the creation of a service package, and the establishment of eligibility rules. Each service package is allocated a price, and the products and services are then allocated to designated health facilities. 
However, this configuration cannot accommodate the complexities of some health insurance and health financing programs that may cover diseases with specific pathologies, target a defined sub-set of the population, restrict coverage to a limited set of products and services, or require those covered to contribute to a portion of the costs.

Addressing these cases requires configuring openIMIS by pathology, age group, and income criteria, and this is where the Complex Products Configuration of openIMIS comes in. The complex configuration defines three principal elements for each program: the type of care to be provided, the normative protocol (how care should be delivered according to national or program standards), and the program’s coverage rules. 

A complex product might be a health insurance package that combines medical products (such as drugs and devices) with related services (procedures), while applying specific rules, such as age limits, quantity caps for specific drugs, and/or mandatory procedures set by national healthcare protocols. George illustrated this with the example of a caesarean section (C-section), where the procedure is only available for pregnant women under defined circumstances, and where specific treatment protocols must be followed in accordance with the country’s standards, including which drugs and in what quantities can be given to her. 

By including more detail about how each service should be delivered within openIMIS, the Complex Product Configuration of openIMIS helps to ensure providers follow national protocols, because they can only be reimbursed on this basis. This in turn helps governments to standardize healthcare delivery and improve quality, and can help to deliver more efficient services with less waste. It is also much more flexible and adaptable to changes in local contexts including changes in standards and protocols.
George went on to provide some useful tips for configuring openIMIS for these more complex products and finished with a quick demo, drawn from Cameroon, where openIMIS has been configured for the management of both fixed complex products (e.g., a package of antenatal care - ANC) and variable complex products (e.g., 3rd line treatment of malaria).

A lively Q&A followed, facilitated by Konstanze Lange, with questions answered by both George and Y-Note’s Managing Director Maxime Ngoe. An interesting question concerned the possibility of moving beyond UHC to use the complex product protocol for emergency and humanitarian aid programs. The answer was that, provided protocols exist which define the care being provided, then openIMIS can facilitate tracking the distribution of care packages for many different kinds of intervention. Further questions related to the availability of training and other supportive resources for those engaged in configuring openIMIS for more complex products, and the possibility of using this protocol for both cash transfers and health insurance schemes in a single instance. 

For more information please check the wiki page and the recording of the Bhela.