What can information systems do for primary health care? An international perspective

doi:10.1016/0277-9536(92)90281-T

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 34, Issue 10, May 1992, Pages 1077-1087

https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(92)90281-T Get rights and content

Abstract

The reform of health information systems has been made a priority by health managers, public health specialists and technocrats. While each of these groups has promised major benefits from improvements in information systems, insufficient attention has been paid to the limitations placed upon the theoretical possibilities of information technology by the characteristics of the health system of which the information system is but a part. Managers anticipate improved efficiency and rational allocation of resources, but rational decision making does not automatically follow from improvements in information. Epidemiologists and public health specialists seek more effective and equitable health systems but methodological problems and the expense of many conventional epidemiological approaches continue to limit the usefulness of disease surveillence, programme monitoring and evaluation. Both managers and epidemiologists are confronted with the conflicts which arise in seeking to create locally sensitive information systems within centralised health systems. Technocrats see microcomputers as essential for information systems to be truly effective and as a means of liberating health workers from the drudgery of form filling. However, the rate of organisational evolution in the health system has not kept pace with the rapid development of information technology. There are good prospects for considerable health gain to be wrought from reforms in health information systems but to realise these it is necessary that this process be ‘action-led’ rather than, as is conventional, ‘data-led’. The latter approach sees data as the end in itself; the ‘action-led’ approach, in contrast, regards information as needs to interventions with a focus on how information will influence decisions. For improvements in information to result in improved health, strategies must be adopted which will ensure that information routinely informs decisions and is seen as a means to the end of improving health.

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What can information systems do for primary health care? An international perspective

Abstract

Soc. Sci. Med.

Soc. Sci. Med.

Soc. Sci. Med.

Health Care Systems in Transition: the Search for Efficiency

Selective primary health care: An interim strategy for disease control in developing countries

N. Engl. J. Med.

Primary Health Care: Report of the International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma-Ata

The State of the World's Children

Financing and Delivering Health Care: A Comparative Analysis of OECD Countries

Medical Informatics: An emerging academic discipline and institutional priority

JAMA

Information as a primary health care intervention: the impact of new technology on improving health for all

From primary health care to basic minimum needs and quality of life: The challenge for MIS in Thailand

Information system development in support of national health programme monitoring and evaluation: The case of the Philippines

Wld Hlth Statist. Q.

Financial information in NHS ‘inadequate’

The Independant

The realisation of the AIM programme

For fuller utilization of health data

Wld Hlth Forum

Computers to monitor costs

NHS Review: Your Guide to the Government's White Paper. GP

Learning from mistakes?

Hlth Serv. J.

Policy-Making and Planning in the Health Sector

Decentralisation concepts and issues: A review

Centralization and decentralization in Latin America

Evaluating interventions against tropical diseases

Int. J. Epidem.

Tropical trials and tribulations

Int. J. Epidemiol.

On measures and models for the effectiveness of vaccines and vaccination programmes

Int. J. Epidem.

Case-control studies of screening procedures

Publ. Hlth

Measurement of the Health Benefits of Investments in Water Supply: Report of an Expert Panel, Public Utilities Department Report PUN 20