Health info system launched in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone's minister of health and sanitation has unveiled the District Health Information System (DHIS), which will produce information on key indicators of public health performance in the country, including immunization, malaria control and HIV prevention.

"The system is well-structured to produce information on key indicators of public health performance which can be used by decision makers and leaders in chiefdoms, district offices and at the national level," Dr. Soccoh Kabia said Friday.

One of the challenges confronting the health sector in the past 10 to 15 years has been the lack of accurate data for monitoring health programs, the minister said.

This has been partly due to the existence of many parallel and uncoordinated data-collection systems within the health sector. A vast amount of data has been collected but most of it has remained unanalyzed and therefore unused, he said.

The DHIS was developed over the past two years by the ministry, Statistics Sierra Leone, Health Metrics Network, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and the University of Oslo, Dr. Kabia said in a phone interview. The project cost about US$2 million.

"DHIS will provide electronic information in a timely manner. In a few months, we should experience better services in our health sector," he told IDG News Service.

DHIS will systematically collect and analyze data from peripheral health units nationwide. The software has already been installed in four districts: Kono, Bombali, Moyamba and Western Area, and staff in these districts have been trained to use it for managing community-level data, Kabia confirmed.