Is Primary Health Care Progressing in Europe?

1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reijo K. Salmela
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Primary Health Care ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Information Systems ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Intersectoral Collaboration ◽  
Health Care Planning ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
Planning And Management

Primary health care (PHC) is the key to attaining the goal of health for all (HFA) by the year 2000. Also the European countries have accepted the declarations and WHO resolutions related to global and European HFA strategies. However, the implementation of regional and national strategies has met with many obstacles, caused by reluctant attitudes and poor planning and management systems. In this review the objective of PHC in industrialized countries, the evaluation process of HFA strategy, and progress in PHC in Europe in the 1980s are discussed. Lack of defined national objectives, and health information systems which are not adopted to purposes of monitoring progress in PHC are causing most of the problems in evaluation. There is a clear positive development in PHC resources and organization in the Nordic countries. Generally speaking PHC is progressing very slowly in Europe, if there is any progress at all. This can be said both about organization of health care, planning and management systems and about application of PHC principles like community participation and intersectoral collaboration. The national health information systems should be quickly revised to allow more exact monitoring of progress towards the 38 European targets and additional national targets.

scholarly journals Researching, Co-creating and Testing Innovations in Paper Health Information Systems (PHISICC) to Support Health Workers Decision-making: Protocol of a Multi-country, Transdisciplinary, Mixed-methods Research Programme in Three Sub-saharan Countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Bosch-Capblanch ◽  
David O’Donnell ◽  
L Kendall Krause ◽  
Christian Auer ◽  
Angela Oyo-Ita ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Health Information Systems ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
Frontline Health Workers ◽  
Rural Settings ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract BackgroundHealth Information Systems are crucial to provide data for decision-making and data demands are constantly growing. However, the link between data and decisions is not always rational nor linear and the management of data ends up overloading frontline health workers, who may have to compromise the health care. Despite limited evidence, there is an increasing push for the digitalisation of Health Information Systems, which faces enormous challenges, particularly in remote, rural settings in low- and middle-income countries. Paper-based tools will continue to be used and this warrants efforts to make them more responsive to local needs. Paper Health Information Systems (PHISICC) is a transdisciplinary, multi-country research initiative to create and test innovative paper-based Health Information Systems in three Sub-Saharan African countries.MethodsThe PHISICC initiative is taking place in remote, rural settings, in Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Nigeria, through partnership with Ministries of Health and research institutions. We began with research syntheses to acquire the most up to date knowledge on Health Information Systems. These were coupled with field work in the three countries to understand the current design, patterns and contexts of use, and health care worker perspectives. Frontline health workers, with designers and researchers, used co-creation methods to produce the new PHISICC tools. This suite of tools is being tested in the three countries. Throughout the project, we have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders and have kept the highest scientific standards to keep it relevant to health policy in each of the three countries.DiscussionWe have deployed a comprehensive research approach to ensure the robustness and future policy uptake of the finding. Beyond the resulting paper-based tool design innovations, our process itself was innovative. Rather than emphasizing the data management compliance aspects we focused instead on frontline health workers’ decision-making; by tackling the whole scope of health care areas in Primary Health Care rather than incremental improvement to existing tools, we developed an entirely new design approach and language for a suite of tools in Primary Health Care. The initiative is being tested in remote, rural areas where the most vulnerable live.

scholarly journals Discussion of “Representation of People’s Decisions in Health Information Systems: A Complementary Approach for Understanding Health Care Systems and Population Health”

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (S 01) ◽  
pp. e20-e29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Najeeb Al-Shorbaji ◽  
Elizabeth Borycki ◽  
Michio Kimura ◽  
Christoph Lehmann ◽  
Nancy Lorenzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Health Information Systems ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Complementary Approach ◽  
Care Systems

SummaryThis article is part of a For-Discussion-Section of Methods of Information in Medicine about the paper “Representation of People’s Decisions in Health Information Systems: A Complementary Approach for Understanding Health Care Systems and Population Health” written by Fernan Gonzalez Bernaldo de Qui-ros, Adriana Ruth Dawidowski, and Silvana Figar. It is introduced by an editorial. This article contains the combined commentaries invited to independently comment on the paper of de Quiros, Dawidowski, and Figar. In subsequent issues the discussion can continue through letters to the editor.

scholarly journals Health Information Systems

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 30-33
Author(s):  
C. Bréant ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Information Systems ◽  
It Alignment

Summary Objectives: Summarize excellent current research in the field of Health Information Systems. Method: Synopsis of the articles selected for the IMIA Yearbook 2010. Results: Five papers from international peer reviewed journals have been selected for the section on health information systems. Conclusions: The elected articles illustrate how health care IT alignment, assessment and benchmarking have become a challenge and a key aspect to the strengthening of health information systems in order to maintain and expand the objectives and strategies of organizations.

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