Event highlights
WHO/Europe held a comprehensive 4-day in-person training on data visualization, Power BI and AI prompt engineering for health information specialists from Turkmenistan.
Opening the event, Dr Ogulnabat Gurbanova, Head of the Information and Statistics Department of the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan, said: “Today, health care is increasingly data-driven. The effectiveness of management decisions, resource planning, programme monitoring, and, ultimately, population health depends on how well we collect, analyse and present data. Therefore, developing competencies in analytics, visualization and modern digital tools is an essential part of strengthening the health-care system.”
The training brought together 30 experts, including Maciej Madaliński, Chargé d'affaires ad interim, Delegation of the European Union to Turkmenistan, and Egor Zaitsev, WHO Representative to Turkmenistan, who also opened the event.
Through a blend of lectures and hands-on exercises, the agenda covered core visualization principles, work with reliable data sources, building interactive Power BI dashboards and automated reports, and developing AI prompt strategies to enhance productivity. Wherever possible, real national datasets were used to ensure practical relevance and support evidence-informed decision-making. This helps specialists leverage large language models (LLMs) more effectively in their daily work within the health system and the Ministry of Health.
Health systems generate vast amounts of data, yet the ability to transform that data into clear, actionable insights remains a critical gap in many countries. By equipping health information specialists with modern data visualization skills and a practical understanding of AI tools, this training directly strengthened the evidence base that informs policy decisions in Turkmenistan. Skilled use of LLMs and interactive dashboards enables faster, more accurate reporting, ultimately contributing to better health outcomes.
The agenda also covered safe and ethical use of LLMs, their limitations, key health indicators and data sources, principles of data visualization, best practices for charts and graphs, interactive Power BI dashboard design, automated reporting techniques, and more.
Pre-test and post-test evaluation showed that participants skills improved by 45% in prompt engineering, by 38% in data visualization and by 87% in creating Power BI dashboards.
This training was co-funded by the European Union under the grant “Protecting people in the Union and its neighbourhood from serious cross-border health threats – health data governance and interoperability”. WHO/Europe and the European Union are working together in partnership to improve health data governance across all 53 Member States of the WHO European Region.