DHIS 2 Symposium

With heightened scrutiny for storage and use of data containing personally identifiable information (PII) and personal health information (PHI), the public health sector is increasingly dealing with security and compliance requirements.  From General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and local country requirements, the need for including security in health information management systems (HMIS) is no longer an optional afterthought, but rather a key requirement.  

Experts from BAO and the University of Oslo will discuss security considerations at the the following levels: organization, hosting, and application.  The organization level will look into the high level security considerations that organizations should consider and be aware of. The hosting level will discuss strategies and specifics required for proper storage, auditing, maintenance, and reporting.  Finally, for the application level we will discuss specific features in the current and upcoming DHIS 2 version as they relate to individual level data security, storage, and use.

Lessons learned from the integration of e-TB Manager and DHIS 2 in Bangladesh are of profound importance: both tools are internationally recognized and operate in many countries, but this is the first time that their interoperability has been fully implemented and proven to exchange TB data successfully. The same approach could be replicated in other countries where e-TB manager and DHIS 2 co-exist.

This session gives an overview of how the USAID funded IHPplus project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) contributed to improving the availability of routine health data by utilizing the MOH’s DHIS 2 integration in the project supported health zones. It also points out the importance of interoperability between MOH and project in-house DHIS 2 instances in order to stop parallel system and improve health zones capacity to collect and enter high-quality data into the MoH’s DHI2 system. The IHPplus M&E team could, therefore, better continue to focus on data analysis, reinforcing capacity to make evidence-based decisions, and improving the quality of project activity implementation. It also presents the ongoing effort to improve the quality of routine health data, data analysis, and use through DHIS 2.

Programme and line managers at National and Provincial health departments in South Africa have not had exposure to DHIS 2 and are, therefore, not using it to analyze the data for both data quality and performance.  They do not know how to use the information for generating reports and for planning and implementing interventions to improve health.  In this session, Jenni Brown from HISP will talk about a training programme that was developed and implemented to use routine data in DHIS 2 in innovative ways to provide managers with a wealth of information on which to base their management decisions.
The aim of the program is to develop managers’ skills to use existing data and information in DHIS 2 for Evidence-Based Health Results Management (EBHRM) which includes Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting & Feedback (MERF) to achieve health goals and optimize health program performance aimed at increasing life expectancy.

Through this programme, managers are being trained to apply existing Systems Theory, Logic and Result Frameworks and Epidemiological principles of prevention to categorize existing indicators in the South African routine information database into a results framework to inform EBHRM and MERF at all levels of the South African Health Care Services. Managers are also being trained on DHIS 2  reporting functionality using graphs, maps, and color-coded tables to populate a dashboard that displays the data according to the results framework principles taught in the course.

EBHRM training packages were developed for various focus areas:

• Reducing perinatal mortality
• PMTCT
• HAST
• Hospital services

Managers at national and provincial levels were trained and are being supported to use DHIS 2 and apply the results framework when planning, monitoring and reporting.This approach is being used as the method of choice to promote the use of information amongst programme and line managers in South Africa.  The training will be offered down to the facility level.