Information Technologies

The West African Health Organization is implementing a regional approach to strengthening human resource information systems that is closely aligned with key principles of the US Government’s Global Health Initiative—supporting country ownership and country-led plans, encouraging sustainability through health systems strengthening and capacity-building, and leveraging partnerships. This CapacityPlus technical brief provides an overview of this approach, highlights lessons learned, and provides recommendations for other regions and countries to adopt the approach.

This study aimed to assess whether the use of cell phone text messaging to improve access to continuing healthcare education in under-resourced settings is acceptable to South African midwives in both the public and private sectors. [adapted from author]

The paper describes the conceptual literature on the determinants of routine health information system (RHIS) performance and its role in improving health systems functioning and performance at the local level, strategies to improve RHIS performance, evaluation challenges, and makes suggestions to improve RHIS design and information use. [adapted from abstract]

To assist in generating further discussion and actions to improve the interoperability of eHealth solutions, the World Bank commissioned this concept paper outlining relevant issues and options on the harmonization and alignment of the eHealth architecture for human resources for health management and development. [adapted from author]

This presentation discusses de-isolating health care professionals through the RAFT telemedicine network that provides a network of health profesionals, low-bandwidth distance education, teleconsulations with communities of experts, an expertise center and a virtual internet patient simulator. [adapted from author]

This presentation from the Family Planning Conference in Dakar discusses mobile’s unprecedented reach and its role in providing new family planning channels and partners for donors, quality improvement and collaboration among family planning projects. [adapted from author]

This report details an eLearning intervention for nurses in Kenya to improve the standards of nursing care by equipping enrolled nurses with the skills to manage new and re-emerging diseases, address the shortage of qualified nurses in Kenya, improve quality of care and achieve health-related Millennium Development Goals. [adapted from author]

This article outlines a project and its evaluation that used ICT equipment to increase the uptake of continuing professional development training in Uganda. [adapted from abstract]

This report tracks hotlines operating in developing countries that connect callers to health professionals, assesses the hotlines success to date, offers suggestions to advance this approach, and assesses their commercial viability and potential for growth. [adapted from author]

The growing penetration of mobile phone networks in many low- and middle-income countries is transforming the way health services and information are accessed, delivered and managed. This document provides an overview of mHealth initiatives, an analysis of the results of the different types of intitiatives, barriers to implementation and an evaluation based on WHO surveys. [from author]

This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms of errors in the case identification process in the existing routine health information system in the Philippines by measuring the risk of committing errors for health program indicators. [from abstract]

This study aims to increase our understanding of health care providers’ attitude towards a national electronic patient record, by investigating their perceptions of the benefits and problems of electronic information exchange in health care. The results of this study provide valuable suggestions about how to promote health care providers’ willingness to adopt electronic information exchange. [adapted from abstract]

Routine health information systems generate potentially useful data, but it is often of low quality and not trusted for decision making. This document outlines PRISM Tools, which provide a structured way to assess the quality of data and use of information in its routine health information system. [adapted from author]

This pocket manual serves as a cursory reference to the tools used to improve the demand for and use of information in health decision making. [from author]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability, validity and usefulness of the Performance of Routine Information System Management (PRISM) framework and its associated data collection and analysis tools designed to assess, design, strengthen and evaluate routine health information systems. [adapted from abstract]

How can countries gather and use health workforce data to increase access to care? This brief presents an overview of the issue of health worker information systems along with suggested actions, key considerations, and resources. [from publisher]

Kabelo Bitsang, iHRIS administrator at the Botswana Ministry of Health, explains how the Ministry is using CapacityPlus’s free, open source software to track and manage the country’s health workforce. [from publisher]

This edition of CapacityPlus Voices highlights the value of free, open source health information applications such as human resources for health information system software. [adapted from author]

This study assessed whether text-message reminders sent to health workers’ mobile phones could improve and maintain their adherence to treatment guidelines for outpatient paediatric malaria in Kenya. [from summary]

Decision support technology purports to optimize the use of diagnostic tests in clinical practice. The objective of this review was to assess whether computerized clinical decision support systems (CCDSSs) are effective at improving ordering of tests for diagnosis, monitoring of disease, or monitoring of treatment. The outcome of interest was effect on the diagnostic test-ordering behavior of practitioners. [from abstract]

Computerized clinical decision support systems (CCDSSs) may help practitioners meet the requirements of chronic care. These systems analyze a patient’s characteristics to provide tailored recommendations for diagnosis, treatment, patient education, adequate follow-up, and timely monitoring of disease indicators. The objective of this review was to determine if CCDSSs improve the processes of chronic care and associated patient outcomes. [adapted from author]

This self-paced online course provides instructions on the basic skill set needed to administer and customize CapacityPlus’s human resources information systems (HRIS) software, iHRIS Manage and iHRIS Qualify. [from publisher]

This study aimed to identify factors inhibiting the implementation and integration of telecare systems for chronic disease management in the community. [from abstract]

This presentation outlines an intervention that introduced PDAs or Smartphones for data collection in Nigeria to improve the supervision, assessment and creation of action plans for quality improvement in facilities where tuberculosis (TB) is diagnosed and treated. [adapted from author]

This article outlines a mobile health information pilot project in South Africa that provides nurses with instant access to a clinical library and treatment guidelines to improve their performance and positively impact patient care. [adapted from author]

This training course on improving routine health information systems is an international course on the comprehensive assessment of information use, with an emphasis on problem-solving. The course uses the Performance of Routine Information System Management conceptual framework and tools. [abstract]

This brief outlines the global health worker shortage, the need for better training, using digital media and technology to improve global health, and advocates for better diplomacy through better health.

This report focuses on the use of information and communication technologies for health service delivery - telemedicine. It includes an overview of telemedicine, synthesizing current literature that illuminates the use of telemedicine in developing countries, and highlights five key lessons learnt from this body of literature. It also presents the results of the Telemedicine Section of the second global eHealth survey and makes recommendations on actions to establish telemedicine as part of a sustainable solution to the health care issues faced by developing countries.

This report explores the use of mobile devices in the collection and transfer of critical health data at the local, national and international levels. The paper is structured around three core healthcare domains: surveillance systems, supply chain, and human resources. Experts in these domains identify critical gaps in health information flows and offer recommendations on how technology-based solutions can be applied. [from publisher]

This article describes Uganda’s transition from a paper filing system to an electronic HRIS capable of providing information about country-specific health workforce questions. It examines the ongoing five-step HRIS strengthening process used to implement an HRIS that tracks health worker data at the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council (UNMC) and describes how HRIS data can be used to address workforce planning questions. [adapted from abstract]