What is a "Health Information System" (HIS)?

A health information system has as a primary goal the transformation of data into information useful for planning and decision-making about programs and policies relating to health and health care.

In other words, an HIS is an information management network, a way to collect and interpret pertinent health data in an on-going fashion. The difference between "health data" and "health information" is a subtle but important one. Patient charts from all the hospitals in Guyana comprise "health data." When those charts and mined and analyzed, and citable statistics, such as the rate of change of TB transmission, have been extracted, then "health information" has been produced. The quality of the latter is directly dependent upon the purity of the former.

Why is an HIS important?

Three words: Cost, appropriateness and speed.

1. A major obstacle to the delivery of comprehensive health care is the cost of the health system, from providers' salaries to the maintenance of facilities and the provision of drugs and other therapies. An HIS helps a nation avoid duplication of services, and helps direct finite resources to where they are most efficiently applied. This reduces the overall waste and cost of a health care system.

2. Without current and validated health information, providers are much less likely to be aware of what interventions are most needed in a community. As a result, limited or even counterproductive measures might be implemented, or no measures taken at all, in response to a given community's health care need. An HIS is a powerful tool for quickly and accurately identifying a population's immediate and long term care needs.

3. In many parts of the world, there is a significant span of time between the identification of a health care need and the delivery of interventions and other measures intended to ameliorate the situation. This is often due to poor physical infrastructure as well as an inability to adequately communicate health needs to the central governing body. An HIS provides a mechanism for the on-going monitoring of communities' health status, thus allowing for more speedy responses to health needs, and indeed for the avoidance of potential health crises.

For a nation like Guyana, what does an HIS entail?

• the establishment of disease reporting standards
• the maintenance of screening, diagnosis, infection and treatment records both locally and centrally
• the utilization of both computer and lower technologies for heightened efficiency and cost effectiveness
• the training and employment of Guyanese citizens to establish and maintain their own information network
• developing the capability to quickly transform pure health data into reportable and meaningful health information