The Health Informatics Research and Innovation Institute (HIRI), anchored at Makerere University, conducts cutting-edge health informatics research and innovation — closing the disconnection between solutions and the society they serve.
Research themes
Connecting to
From health data science and AI/ML to interoperability, digital health surveillance, health economics, and knowledge translation, HIRI's five research themes turn evidence into the systems and decisions that improve health at national scale.
Research themes
Anchored at
HIRI builds the evidence with the people who'll use it — co-designing health informatics solutions alongside policymakers, clinicians, and the community, and staying engaged until each system is actually delivering better care on the ground.
Research themes
Co-designed with
Observe
Research
Innovate
Deliver
Health Informatics
Data Science
AI & ML
Surveillance
Evidence-Informed Policy
Observe
Research
Innovate
Deliver
Health Informatics
Data Science
AI & ML
Surveillance
Evidence-Informed Policy
HIRI closes the disconnection between health informatics solutions and the society they serve — turning evidence into systems, tools, and decisions that improve outcomes for more than 40 million people in Uganda and beyond.
40M+
From data science and AI/ML to surveillance, economics, and policy translation — five themes covering the full HI value chain.
Learn More
HIRI's site is a hub. Pick a starting point to explore our people and purpose, our research themes and active projects, our latest updates, or the outputs of our work — publications, data, toolkits, software, briefs, and reports.
Our people, partners, and purpose
Five research themes and active projects
Updates, announcements, and gatherings
Publications, data, toolkits, software, briefs, and reports
HIRI sits at the intersection of clinical medicine, biomedical sciences, public health, and global health — co-designing with users, building capacity, and integrating change management across every project so research turns into the systems and decisions that move outcomes.
Research that serves 40M+ Ugandans and informs policy at scale
Built in partnership with policymakers, clinicians, and communities
HIRI's portfolio spans the full health informatics value chain: from data and AI to standards, surveillance, economics, and policy translation. Each project is anchored at Makerere University and co-designed with the people who'll use it.
Health informatics research and innovation, connecting solutions to communities across Uganda and beyond.
Diagnosis, prediction, personalised care, predictive analytics for patient outcomes, and operational efficiency improvement.
Integrated, standardised, shareable health data systems — terminology, interoperability, and data governance for capture, analytics, and sharing.
Passive, active, syndromic, and One Health surveillance for disease control, epidemic preparedness, and global health threats.
Turning research into the systems and decisions that improve health service delivery — co-designed with policymakers and the community.
Funders, institutions, and ministries — co-designing with HIRI across health systems.
Observe. Research. Innovate. Deliver. Every HIRI project follows the same arc: identify the gap, build the evidence with the people who'll use it, and translate the results into the systems, policies, and practice that improve health outcomes.
Identify the gap — in clinics, labs, communities, and the data — that real-world health systems are facing.
Build the evidence with the people who'll use it — co-designing solutions with policymakers, clinicians, and the community.
Translate the evidence into the systems, policies, and practice that improve health outcomes at scale.
HIRI welcomes funders, institutional partners, researchers, fellows, and the public. Whether you want to co-fund a project, join a research team, or contribute to community-facing work, there's a way in.
For institutions, donors, and collaborators ready to co-design and co-fund national-scale health informatics work.
For researchers, fellows, students, and trainees who want to contribute to HIRI's portfolio or build a career in health informatics.
Quick answers about who we are, where we work, how we're funded, and how you can join, partner, or use our outputs.
HIRI is the Health Informatics Research and Innovation Institute, anchored at Makerere University. We conduct health informatics research and innovation that closes the gap between solutions and the people they serve.
HIRI is anchored at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. We work across clinical medicine, biomedical sciences, public health, and global health — and partner with institutions across Africa, Europe, and North America.
HIRI's portfolio is funded by a mix of international and national funders, including the UK NIHR, the US NIH (Fogarty), the German BMFTR, NORAD/NorHED, UKRI/MRC, and the Government of Uganda (through MakRIF). See our Partners & Funders page for the full list.
Yes. HIRI welcomes funders, academic and implementation partners, and community organisations. See the Partner with HIRI section above, or contact us directly with a proposal.
All HIRI outputs — publications, datasets, toolkits, software, policy briefs, and reports — are catalogued in the Resource Library. Most are open-access; some require a short request form. Browse from the menu above.
HIRI's research has shaped how we think about digital health data at the national level — turning evidence into the systems and standards that actually move forward.
Working with HIRI has been about more than papers. They co-design with us, train our teams, and stay engaged until the platform is actually delivering for clinicians on the ground.
What stands out about HIRI is the discipline of evidence — every recommendation traces back to data we can interrogate. That's what makes their work credible at the policy table.
