Najeeb Al Shorbaji

Born on 1 November 1954 in Aqbet Jabr, Near Jericho. Educated in UNRWA schools there and in Baqa Camp, then Government schools in Baqa and Sweileh. Went to University of Jordan and University of Wales. Retired from WHO as Director of Knowledge, Ethics and Research end of August 2015. Currently lives in Amman, Jordan and works in freelance consulting, research, mentoring, and writing in addition to some voluntary scientific activities.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
• Tawjihi, June 1973.
• Bachelor, English Language and Business Administration, University of Jordan, February 1977.
• Post-Graduate Diploma, Library and Information Science, University of Jordan, June 1979.
• Master’s Degree, Information Science, University of Wales, UK, December 1983.
• PhD, Information Science, University of Wales, UK, March 1986.
• Advanced training courses in statistical analysis, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS-X), CDS\ISIS, DBASE III+, FoxBase, FoxPro, MS SQL, ACCESS, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Lotus 123, Harvard Graphics; Information Technology Project Management, leadership and management, health informatics and global health diplomacy.
MEMBERSHIP IN SCIENTIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
• Founding member of the IMIA International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics(2017).
• Member of the Steering Committee of HIFA(Health Information for All), UK-based Non-government organization since September 2015.
• Member of the Jordan Library and Information Association, Secretary 1982 and Vice-President 1989-1994, Board Member since April 2016.
• Member of the Jordan Computer Societysince 1985.
• Member of ASLIB, Association for Information Management, UK (1982-1987), Corporate Membership since 1996.
• Founding member and Coordinator of CDS\ISIS User Group, Jordan, 1990-1994.
• Founding member of MINISIS User Group, Jordan, 1990.
• Member of the Editorial Board of Jordanian Journal of Library and Information Science (Rissalat Al-Maktaba), 1986-1990 and since April 2016. 31/05/2017.
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Information Development, 1993.
• Member of the Editorial Board of Journal of eHealth Technology and Application since 2007.
• Member of the Jordan National Information Centre’s Technical Committee and Chairman of the Sub-committee on Information (1993-1994).
• Member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals(CILIP), UK since 1982.
• Member of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).
• Member of Arab Knowledge Management Society (AKMS).
• Honorary Member of the International Medical Informatics Association(IMIA).
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Arabic Journal of Archives, Documentation and Information, since 2017.
PUBLICATIONS
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About the Author

Najeeb Al-Shorbaji

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Dr. Najeeb Al-Shorbaji is currently consulting for private and public sectors in areas of knowledge management, eHealth, digital health, big data and development bibliometric analysis including advisory services to e-Marefa. He worked as Vice-President for Knowledge, Research and Ethics at e_marefa (Knowledge World Company for Digital Content) in Jordan from September 2015 to March 2017. In this capacity, he led the development of the e-Marefa (www.e-marefa.net) as an integrated system for scientific and technical literature, statistics and expertise form the Arab World. Dr Al-Shorbaji retired from the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva on 31 August 2015 as Director of the Department of Knowledge, Ethics & Research where he worked since September 2008. During this period he led the WHO global programs for eHealth and Telemedicine, Publishing & Dissemination, Research & Knowledge Translation, Networking and Information Services and Global Health Ethics. At the same time, he acted as Director of Patient Safety Program for over two years. Before that he held the positions of Coordinator for Knowledge Management & Sharing, Regional Advisor for Health Information Management & Telecommunication and Regional Informatics Officer and Information Scientist at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean in Cairo, Alexandria and Amman from February 1988 to August 2008. Dr Al-Shorbaji is from Jordan, born in 1954, married and holds a PhD in Information Sciences since 1986 from the University of Wales, UK. Dr Al-Shorbaji has published over 200 research articles, book chapters, conference papers and PowerPoint Presentations covering all aspects of knowledge management and eHealth and attended, presented and delivered keynote addresses in over 150 professional conferences. His major interests. ORCID ID is 0000-0003-3843-8430.

Integration

For many library and information specialists in the Arab world CDS/ISIS has been an example of the integrated systems as it stands for “Integrated Set of Information Systems “. Integration allows for different parts to function as one in which data from one part can be used by the other. Integration is different from interoperability.

National eHealth Strategy

Development of a national eHealth strategy is the cornerstone for seamless integration of eHealth in the national health system. WHO and ITU developed an excellent tool titled “National eHealth Strategy Development Toolkit” to assist ministries of health, ministries of information and communication and other stakeholders in countries to work together to develop such strategy. See more details.

Computer-Based Library and information Systems

Library automation and computerization of health records have been around for many years. Such systems have different names and a huge range of functionalities based on needs, budget, technology, etc. Each one of them has its life cycle and clientele. One in libraries and one healthcare institutions. Web-based systems, multilingual, customizable, etc. are just examples of what they are.

Information Literacy

Supporting information literacy among users has been one major activity that libraries and information systems have been doing for many years. The aim is to ensure that people have the competencies to recognize their information needs, the capacity to locate information, evaluate it and use it.

How I work

1 Assessment and Situation Analysis

2 Sharing of Knowledge and Experience

The basic principle in consulting is that people put trust in me to help them. Helping them simply means sharing with them my knowledge and experience in a way that they can use and apply in their own situation. After analaysis the situation and listening to people from all ranks comes the sharing of knowledge. Sharing of Tacit knowledge as a major source to help others to speak, learn, reflect and apply and more important to gain the trust of others. Sharing of lessons learned, telling personal stories of success and failure can help others open up and avoid hiding their feelings and their successes and failures as they are afraid of punishment or criticism. Opening up access to explicit knowledge in the form my own reports, publications and speeches and relevant publications from the literature is also part of this sharing. My own personal library collection will be open to those who seek advice. I am going to make a catalogue of all the books and articles I have compiled over 40 years of study and work.

3 Workshop with Stakeholders

4 Reporting and Documentation