Skills building seminar: Learning to assess Health Information Systems - from performance measurements to areas of action

In order to respond effectively to population health and health systems’ challenges, policies must be based on the best scientific evidence derived from sound data and information, and relevant research. Health information systems (HIS), both at national and international level, play an important role in ensuring that reliable and timely health information is available for operational and strategic decision making inside and outside the health sector. How do you know if the HIS in your country is performing well? How can you identify potential areas of action in such a complex and multistakeholder system? Previous research has found that there is a great need for capacity-building activities to support strategic development and assessment of HIS. The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe has created a practical support tool to assist Member States in assessing and developing their national HIS and eHealth systems. The tool covers the domains of resources, indicators, data sources, data management, national HIS data quality/information products, and dissemination and use. Currently, the tool is being used by nine countries in the Joint Action on Health Information (InfAct) to peer review each other’s HIS in rotating groups of three countries. This skill building seminars will start with two presentations to set the scene. First, an introduction will be given on the concepts of a HIS and its core elements, the WHO assessment tool and its current format. Second, experiences will be shared on using the support tool. Thereafter, the participants will choose a domain of the HIS tool in which they are particularly interested and will be split into groups. Each group will carry out a mock exercise of the chosen domain of the tool for their own country. They will identify strengths and weaknesses, and exchange experiences among members of the group on how these have potentially been addressed. Each group will be guided by an expert in the domain with prior experience with the tool. Additionally, based on previous experiences with the tool, a set of commonly found strengths and weakness, followed by recommendations will be prepared to support the group discussions. The skill building session will end by having each group report in a plenary format. The experts from each domain will reconvene in a panel and provide feedback to the strength and weakness, and recommendations that were identified during the group discussions. Through this skill building seminar, participants will have a clear picture of what a HIS entails. They will be familiarised with an existing HIS assessment tool and how it has been used. Through guided group discussions, they will be able to identify potential elements of action in a specific domain and cross-fertilise with other participants and experts on ideas how to address specific challenges. Finally, they will learn about common strengths and challenges in HIS across Europe. Key messages Health information from strong health information systems can help Member States identify areas for action to reduce health inequalities, improve health and support the evaluation of measures taken. The specific needs for capacity building to run a health information system (HIS) on national, regional or even local level has long been neglected. HIS assessments are one element to close this gap.