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Chapter 22 - Health Information and Information Technology

The Path from Data to Decision

from Section 2 - Transforming Health Systems: Confronting Challenges, Seizing Opportunities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2022

By
Jeremy C. Wyatt  and
Hamish Fraser
Edited by
Sameen Siddiqi ,
Awad Mataria ,
Katherine D. Rouleau  and
Meesha Iqbal
Sameen Siddiqi
Affiliation:
Aga Khan University
Awad Mataria
Affiliation:
World Health Organization, Egypt
Katherine D. Rouleau
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Meesha Iqbal
Affiliation:
UTHealth School of Public Health, Houston
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Summary

This Chapter describes principles of information management for health systems and the need to focus on key data items required to improve individual and population health. It discusses the collection and analysis of relevant, high-quality data and the importance of agreeing on health programme aims before defining the minimum data set. We review the derivation of health indicators, focusing on WHO indicators. Many indicators rely on linking data from different sources, which requires accurate personal identifiers. Data is useless unless reports based on it can be shared and understood, so data analysts should use different visualization techniques to facilitate and support user decisions such as self-service dashboards. We also review the many high quality, open source, free to use data capture, analysis and data sharing tools that can support health systems, concluding that it is rarely necessary to develop an information system from scratch. Finally, while big data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning capture many headlines, health system can achieve much using simple tools to capture relevant, high-quality data and turn it into actionable knowledge to support their decision makers.

Keywords

Data and information systemsData qualityData dictionaryData collection toolsData codingAnonymisationInformation standardsReports and dashboardsOpen-source information systemsAI and machine learningData-driven quality improvementL&MIC
Type
Chapter
Information
Making Health Systems Work in Low and Middle Income Countries
Textbook for Public Health Practitioners
 , pp. 336 - 353
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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