First experience with a WHO tool for assessing health information systems

Abstract

At the request of Member States, the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe developed a support tool for the assessment of health information systems (HIS) and generation of health information strategies. Recently, a shortened version of the HIS assessment component of this tool was applied in four countries of the European Region. This paper presents preliminary experiences of using the support tool, and the common strengths and challenges across Albania, Bulgaria and Ukraine in particular. Key challenges faced by countries in the Region include the poorly functioning intersectoral coordination mechanisms for HIS and limited use of existing health information for policymaking. Furthermore, there are concerns regarding data quality and access to these non-integrated systems. Overall, there is a great need for capacity-building activities to support strategic development and assessment of HIS. It has also been suggested that a condensed version of the support tool be created to facilitate self-assessment. This pilot exercise highlights the benefit of creating a mechanism to facilitate the exchange of country experiences.