RHINO board member Theo Lippeveld and RHINO members Tariq Azim, David Boone, Vikas Dwivedi, and Michael Edwards with Carla AbouZahr through JSI’s Center for Health Information, Monitoring and Evaluation contributed to the recently published book, The Palgrave Handbook of Global Health Data Methods for Policy and Practice (2019 Macfarlane, S. and AbouZahr, C.). The handbook is intended for a wide audience from global health student to practitioner to policymaker and compiles methods for gathering, organizing and disseminating data to inform policy and manage health systems worldwide.
Theo et al. wrote a chapter, called Health Management Information Systems: Backbone of the Health System. The abstract is below:
Lippeveld, Azim, Boone, Dwivedi, Edwards and AbouZahr describe the health management information system (HMIS) as a key source of data for health policy and planning. The authors define the HMIS and describe the multiple data sources from which it draws, including patient records, health facility registers, community records, and health facility assessments. They describe the strengths and limitations of the HMIS and summarize how these can be addressed, with a focus on data quality and use of information for decision-making. Finally, they introduce innovations and technologies that are transforming HMIS to respond to the data needs of modern health-care systems. They show how the power of the HMIS is enhanced when linked to other data sources such as administrative record systems, censuses and surveys.
The full chapter is available for purchase here or through the publisher.
