This web-enabled system aims at facilitating district-level public health data capturing on a monthly basis, as against other data collection systems that provide health-related information after long intervals of time. An initiative of the ministry of health and family welfare, the Health Management Information System (HMIS) interface, therefore, involves health officials at the district and state level uploading health-related data on a monthly basis on the HMIS portal online.
The MoHFW recently issued guidelines indicating that all the states increase the scope of data collected and thus shift to block level or facility level reporting from April 2011, and in the process, also compile health data of levels that come below the district. While the other states are adopting the facility based reporting starting from April 2011, Maharashtra is yet to do so.
The initiative still has to evolve further to reach the public at large. City-based Population Research Centre, the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) currently undertakes the analysis of the data submitted by the health officials from various districts. "We analyse quality-related aspects in the data, point out the discrepancies and suggest possible rectifications," said R Nagarajan, Reader, Population Research Centre, GIPE, also a member of the core committee formulated by MoHFW for HMIS.
Nagarajan added that prior to the exercise MoHFW relied on other data sources such as the civil registration system, used for collecting birth and death statistics and sample registration system that estimates fertility and mortality at both state and national levels, among others.
"However, there were certain deficiencies in the civil registration system, while the sample registration system gave data only on the state level. The national family health survey (NFHS) too was a state-level survey, while the district level household survey (DLHS) is conducted once in five years. In order to overcome such limitations in these data-collection systems, the HMIS was introduced, for it helps cull monthly compilation of health data from public and private institutions in rural and urban areas across the country," said Nagarajan.
The data are collected on five broad categories, which together have 17 different modules. "The data are based on aspects such as reproductive health, national health programmes, health facility services, monthly inventory status and mortality details. These categories have 17 different modules based on which the data are collected," he said.The information captured on the HMIS portal can be used for analysing the current status and trends on a host of health parameters. This data can be used to look at the country level status, state-wise comparison of performance, and also trends over time. States can further analyse district-level and facility-level trends to identify the performance of the districts and blocks and take appropriate action.
As reported in: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Now-new-system-to-collect-health-data/articleshow/9005541.cms
The MoHFW recently issued guidelines indicating that all the states increase the scope of data collected and thus shift to block level or facility level reporting from April 2011, and in the process, also compile health data of levels that come below the district. While the other states are adopting the facility based reporting starting from April 2011, Maharashtra is yet to do so.
The initiative still has to evolve further to reach the public at large. City-based Population Research Centre, the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) currently undertakes the analysis of the data submitted by the health officials from various districts. "We analyse quality-related aspects in the data, point out the discrepancies and suggest possible rectifications," said R Nagarajan, Reader, Population Research Centre, GIPE, also a member of the core committee formulated by MoHFW for HMIS.
Nagarajan added that prior to the exercise MoHFW relied on other data sources such as the civil registration system, used for collecting birth and death statistics and sample registration system that estimates fertility and mortality at both state and national levels, among others.
"However, there were certain deficiencies in the civil registration system, while the sample registration system gave data only on the state level. The national family health survey (NFHS) too was a state-level survey, while the district level household survey (DLHS) is conducted once in five years. In order to overcome such limitations in these data-collection systems, the HMIS was introduced, for it helps cull monthly compilation of health data from public and private institutions in rural and urban areas across the country," said Nagarajan.
The data are collected on five broad categories, which together have 17 different modules. "The data are based on aspects such as reproductive health, national health programmes, health facility services, monthly inventory status and mortality details. These categories have 17 different modules based on which the data are collected," he said.The information captured on the HMIS portal can be used for analysing the current status and trends on a host of health parameters. This data can be used to look at the country level status, state-wise comparison of performance, and also trends over time. States can further analyse district-level and facility-level trends to identify the performance of the districts and blocks and take appropriate action.
As reported in: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Now-new-system-to-collect-health-data/articleshow/9005541.cms