Health information system is,
in general, any set up to provide all types of basic information about the
availability of health facilities in a specific area. A well-developed health
information system is the foundation of public health. A population-based health
information system can guide our federal & provincial governments in planning
and regulatory decision-making. Public health decision-making is critically
dependent on the timely availability of sound data, and complete health
information to meet the needs of an individual patient and their relatives.
In Pakistan about basic health information,
we are facing multiple problems on large scale, not only in rural areas but also
in well-developed urban territories. First major problem is lack of information
for common public. 2nd one is lack of public access to available health
informational data. 3rd one is general public has no information that which kind
of medical facilities are available in different labs, diagnostic centers and
health providers with in their local areas either public or private. 4th one is
lack of information about the availability of basic investigative medical
services like X-Ray, CT Scan, MRI, Mammogram & different lab tests within any
specific area.
The role of health information systems is to generate, analyze and organize such
data according to the requirements of under developed areas of the society.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan health information systems rarely function
systematically. This problem is a semi-product of historical, social and
economic issues, they are complex, fragmented and unresponsive to the welfare
and basic needs of community. Our federal and provincial health ministries are
largely responsible for the problem, having prioritized urgent needs for data
over longer-term country capacity-building. The result is painfully apparent in
the inability to generate the data needed to monitor progress towards the
provision of advanced and well-developed health information system for the
general public and also for the decision-making authorities.
Overall in Pakistan health facilities range from small clinics and doctor's
personal hospitals to urgent care centers and large hospitals with elaborate
emergency rooms, operation theaters and trauma centers. As we know the number
and quality of health facilities in a country or in a specific region is one
common measure of that area's prosperity and quality of life. In Pakistan,
health facilities are regulated to some extent by federal & provincial health
ministries. In our urban and rural areas health facilities are generally owned
and operated by for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, federal &
provincial governments, private & public sectors and in some cases by
individuals. So, there is a need for a very organized approach to collect health
data and detailed information about available medical facilities from all
mentioned above health providers.
Globally we are looking that there has been a tremendous progress in medicine as
well as in informatics. One important benefit of this progress is that
internationally average human life expectancy is nowadays significantly higher
than it would have been even some few decades ago. Now considering health
information systems (HIS), three questions need to be discussed: what are the
lines of development in health information systems from the past until today?
What is the importance and what consequences for a HIS in the future? And how to
develop and design a well-organized health information system.
Definitely its time to design a mature and practicable health information system
in Pakistan, which should be easily accessible for general public & also for
health related authorities. To achieve the goal, following lines of development
for HIS should be considered as most important: (1) an health information system
which should be helpful to increase public awareness regarding drugs, lifesaving
medication, available medical facilities & services, management of both acute &
chronic diseases, (2) health information system which one should be help full to
operate well organized hospital inquiry desks, (3) information about available
medical centers for specific disease like TP, leprosy and sexually transmitted
diseases, (4) construction of health information system in locally
understandable languages by general public. (5) the shift from paper-based to
computer-based processing and storage, as well as the increase of data in health
care setups; (6) the shift from institution-centered & departmental hospital
information systems towards regional and national HIS data base of Pakistan ;
(7) the inclusion of patients and health consumers as HIS users, besides health
care professionals and administrators; (8) the use of HIS data not only for
patient care and administrative purposes, but also for health care planning by
the federal, provincial and local govts; (9) use for clinical and
epidemiological research; (10) the shift from mainly alpha-numeric data in HIS
to images, graphs and tables to easily understandable for general public ; (11)
the speedy increase of new technologies to be included for health monitoring &
construction of health information system.