HSM 2 Health information

systems
Course lecturer
Denis M Mwaniki
EHS,BSc HSM,MSc HSM
 Common definitions
Data: raw facts, statistics, measurements
collected together for reference or analysis.
• Can also be seen as information in raw or
unorganized form e.g. tallies, numbers,
percentages.
Information: this is processed data which can
inform decision making.
 Cont…d
System:- a set dependent yet interdependent
parts that’s form a whole.
 For example the digestive system is a system
by its own, but has to rely on other systems
such as the circulatory systems for proper
functioning.
 The digestive system, skeletal, nerverous,etc
make one whole the human body.
 Cont…d
Information system(IS) is an organized system
for the collection, organization ,storage, and
communication of information.
Health information system (HIS):- refers to
any system that captures, stores, manages or
transmits information related to health of
individuals or the activities of organizations
that work within the health sector.
 Cont…d
Health management information
system( HMIS) it’s a data collection system
specifically designed to support planning,
management, and decision making in health
facilities and organizations.
 Sources of health information
1) Census reports
2) Registration of Vital Events
3) Notification of diseases
4) Hospital records
5) Disease registers
6) Health manpower statistics
7) Population surveys (health surveys)
8) Sentinel stations
9) Registrar of births and deaths
10) environmental health data
11)Health surveillance systems( epidemiological surveillance)
 Sources of health information
Census :The total process of collecting,
compiling, and publishing demographic,
economic, and social data pertaining at a
specified time usually ten (10) years in Kenya.
Registration of Vital Events:- these includes
records of live births, deaths, fetal deaths,
marriages, divorce etc.
 Cont..d
Notification of Diseases:- disease notification
reporting the occurrence of a specified
disease of public health importance.
A notifiable disease is that disease that is
required by the law to be reported e.g. anthrax,
polio, measles etc. reasons
 Its of interest to international regulations
 Cont…d
 Its severity
 Significant risk of international spread
 Its communicability
 The social economic costs of its cases
 Its preventability
 examples
• The following diseases are notifiable to WHO
1) Cholera
2) Yellow fever and
3) Plague
4) Small pox
5) Poliomyelitis due to wild –type polio virus
6) SARS for example the bird flu,
7) And
8) Cases of human influenza
 Cont…d
Hospital records:- information of patients who
seek service both out patients and inpatients
Disease registers:- A registry is basically a list of
all the patients in a defined population who
have a particular condition or disease.
Epidemiological surveillance: diseases that
require frequent monitoring… to keep an eye on
the incidence, prevalence, and changing pattern
of the disease.eg AFP, & leprosy
 Cont..d
Other health records e.g. MCH centers, school
health records, special clinics, immunization etc.
Environmental health data:- information on
environment may be needed for studying its effects
on health e.g.
 Air, water & noise pollution
 Harmful food additives
 Industrial toxicants
 Inadequate waste disposal
Types of health information
 Data collection methods
Health data can either be quantitative for
example number of households having a pit
latrine or qualitative for example patient
satisfaction.
The choice of data collection method is
determined by among other factors ,the
collection strategy, type of variable, accuracy
required, the skills of the enumerator.
 continued
Methods of collecting qualitative data
 Interviews
 Focus groups
 Observations
 Self study
 Action research
 Cont..d
Methods of collecting quantitative data includes:-
1) Observations
2) Interviews
3) Questionnaires
• Results in numerical data such as
a. Tallies
b. Counts
c. Frequencies
d. Means
e. length
 Data storage & analysis
Data storage: data storage is a general term
for archiving data in electromagnetic or other
forms for use by a computer device or
manually.
Electronic data storage: this form of storage
requires electricity and an electronic gadget to
store and get back to data
 Electronic data
• Modern –day business needs secure, reliable and
speedy access to their data, making their choice
of electronic storage devise an important one.
• Examples of electronic data includes e-mail,
electronic files and social media platforms
• This data may be stored on-line e.g. emails or in
physical locations such as in hard disks, remote
servers, RAMs, SD cards, USB sticks etc.
 Advantages of electronic data archiving
(storage)
 Time saving; data readily available by the click
of a button
 Increased security; files can be protected by
passwords or encryption
 Greater data retrieval: through such engines
 Environmental benefits: re-educed paper
waste generation.
 Traditional data storage
In traditional approach information is stored
in flat files, which are maintained by a file
system.

• Data is stored in flat files as records

• Records consists of various fields
 Problems with the traditional approach for
storing data.
• Data security;- the data stored in flat files can
be easily accessible and hence its not secure.
• Data Redundancy:- in this storage model , the
same information may get duplicated in two
files. This may lead to higher storage and
access cost. It may also lead to data
inconsistency
 Cont…d
• Data isolation: data isolation means that all
the related data is not available in one file.
Usually the data is scattered in various files
having different formats.
• Lack of flexibility: if we need unanticipated
data, huge programming effort is needed to
make the information available.
 Data analysis
• The process of inspecting, cleansing,
transforming, and modeling data with a goal
of discovering useful information, suggesting
conclusions, and supporting decision making.
 Cont…d
• Analysis refers to breaking the whole in to its
separate components.
Data analysis is the process of obtaining raw
data and converting it in to information
useful for decision making by users
 The process of data analysis
Data processing (data collation)
• This refers to organizing raw data, for
analysis. For example placing data in rows eg
counts:- 23,25,94,23,18 21,36,1a or placing
the data in a table
• Such data can be analyzed to give a pie chart,
bar graph, line graph etc.
 Cont…d
Data cleaning
• This is the process of ensuring the organized
data is free from errors ,such as incomplete
data, duplicated data, inconsistent data.
• Note above ,entry no 94 seams to be
displaced
• Which other one can you note?
 Actual data analysis
• Once the data has been cleaned and organized
its now ready for analysis.
• Various techniques are available
• The most initial one is called exploratory data
analysis to begin understanding the message
contained in the data.
• You simply look at the data sets, and figure
what it means.
 Cont…d
• Data can further be analyzed by use of what is
called descriptive statistics.
• This can be done by use of a scientific
calculator, and computer soft ware programs
such as the Spread sheets (excel) or more
sophisticated ones such as the Scientific
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
• May give rise to means, median, standard
deviations, colelations etc.
 14

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Data presentation
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 Data utilization
An organization uses data for :-
Providing evidence based decision making
Advocating for resource mobilization
Informing resource allocation
Maintaining facility records
Accountability purposes
Transparency purposes
• Note: numbers don’t lie