National Workshop on Pretest for Leprosy Management Information System in China took place in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province

On July 2-4, 2010, National Workshop on Pretest for Leprosy Management Information System in China (LEPMIS) was hold in Nanchang city of Jiangxi Province. The workshop was organized by the National Center for Leprosy Control, China CDC (NCLC). A total number of 28 leprosy managers and leprosy staff at provincial, prefecture and county levels from Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan Provinces and staff of NCLC were invited to attend the workshop.

The objectives of the workshop were: 1) To launch the pretest for LEPMIS in selected counties of four provinces; 2) To commit pretest tasks to selected counties.

Prof. Zhang Guocheng, Deputy Director General of Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Science (IOD) & the NCLC, made a speech on the workshop. He firstly introduced the history of LEPMIS. He predicted that the LEPMIS will be a very important part of leprosy programme and will significantly improve the quality of leprosy control programme in general. Prof. Zhang also requested all members of the pretest to provide more suggestions for improving the LEPMIS. Prof. Zhang also expressed his thanks to all members and supported leaders for their supports to pretest for LEPMIS as well as leprosy activities organized by NCLC. Mr. Xiong Jijie, Head of Team for Schistosomiasis and Endemic Diseases Control and Mr. Fang Jixing, Vice researcher, of Team for Schistosomiasis and Endemic Diseases Control of Jiangxi Provincial People's Government, and Mr. Li Yingchai, Deputy Director General of Institute of Parasitic Diseases Control presented in the meeting and made speeches. The workshop was chaired by Dr. Yan Liangbin, Director of Department of Leprosy Control, NCLC.

With the coordination of Mr. Li ShaoHua, Director of Department of Network Center and Mr. Zhu Bokun, a Software Engineer of the IOD, Dr. Yu Meiwen, Coordinator of LEPMIS, facilitated the discussion of the workshop. The suggestions and comments were provided during the online test of the system by participants. The system will be test in the next two months and more suggestions and comments will come out.

National Workshop on Pretest for Leprosy Management Information System in China came to a satisfactory outcome, full of each representative’s nice expectation. Hopefully the LEPMIS will be launched national wide at the beginning of September.

The workshop was supported by the Netherlands Leprosy Relief (NLR).