The Pan-African health informatics conference (HELINA) will be hosted by the Kenya Health Informatics Association (KeHIA) and will focus on how technology is being used to strengthen health systems in the African Region. Issues of specific interest are development and implementation of integrated e-Health plans and policies that enable capacity building for eHealth professionals, improving quality of health information and promotion of the meaningful use of health data to support and ground decision-making, improving access to essential medical supplies through improved supply chain and logistics, development of sustainable health information systems for service delivery and innovative health financing models that improve access to health. There is also an interest in the role of digital health in health surveillance systems particularly due to emerging health threats including non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and therefore, the core participatory role of the client in detection, response, treatment and care. Special attention will be paid to the role of e-Health in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) voted by the UN in September 2015 and more specifically to goal 9, target 9c which aims to « Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in the least developed countries by 2020 ».