Routine Health Information Systems: A Curriculum on Basic Concepts and Practice

"Relevant and well-structured courses on RHIS are few, and are not tailored to the needs of developing countries."

Routine health information systems (RHIS), also called health facility and community information systems, regularly generate data that have been collected at public and private health facilities and institutions, as well as at community-level healthcare posts and clinics. The purpose of this curriculum from MEASURE Evaluation is to enhance participants' capacity to conceptualise, design, develop, govern, and manage an RHIS and to use the information the system generates to improve public health practice and service delivery.

MEASURE Evaluation explains that RHIS generate data - generated at regular intervals of a year or less - cover health status, health services, and health resources. A strong health information system (HIS) that produces reliable, timely, and good-quality data is among several factors enabling health programme managers to monitor, evaluate, and improve health system performance and make evidence-informed decisions. An RHIS also provides regular information for many core indicators of the national health strategy. Some of the root causes of poor RHIS performance are: ill-defined information needs; poor data quality; issues surrounding the use of information; limited human resource capacity; and the centralisation and fragmentation of HIS. According to MEASURE Evaluation, there is a need to build the capacity of developing countries to collect, manage, and interpret health data. And this, in turn, will require training such as that being offered here.

In this core course, students will study the design, implementation, and strengthening of RHIS. Using practical case studies, participants will learn how to improve the performance of an RHIS by producing reliable data to inform decisions at all levels of the health system. They will also come to understand the important contribution of information and communication technology (ICT). A facilitators' guide is part of a package of training materials for the RHIS course. It explains how to present the modules outlined in the syllabus: a separate, shorter document that provides an overview of the course.

To improve RHIS and ultimately, health outcomes, a global group of experts developed this basic course on RHIS in 2015–2016 and pilot-tested it in New Delhi, India, in June 2016. Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), MEASURE Evaluation led this effort in collaboration with the following partners: the World Health Organization (WHO); the Free University of Brussels/European Agency for Development and Health (AEDES); the University of Oslo, in Norway; the National Institute of Public Health (INSP), in Mexico; the University of Queensland, in Australia; and the Public Health Foundation of India.