Filling the training gaps in routine health information systems

A strong health information system that produces reliable, timely, and good-quality data is among several factors enabling health program managers to monitor, evaluate, and improve health system performance and make evidence-informed decisions. Routine health information systems (or 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.

MEASURE Evaluation and partners are proud to announce a new online curriculum on routine health information systems. Leaders in the field of RHIS—the USAID-funded MEASURE Evaluation project; the World Health Organization; the Free University of Brussels/European Agency for Development and Health (AEDES); the University of Oslo, Norway; the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico; the University of Queensland, Australia; and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI)—developed the curriculum.

Low-and middle-income countries have since long needed a standardized and basic training package  to meet the challenge of strengthening their RHIS at all levels. This curriculum fills that gap. Its purpose is to enhance participants’ capacity to conceptualize, design, develop, govern, and manage an RHIS—and use the information the system generates to improve public health practice and service delivery. Using practical case studies, participants in this core RHIS course will learn how to improve the performance of RHIS by producing reliable data to inform decisions at all levels of the health system. The curriculum is currently only in English but French and Spanish translations are underway.

MEASURE Evaluation’s RHIS curriculum— available here —consists of the following resources:

Routine Health Information Systems: A Curriculum on Basic Concepts and Practice—Syllabus, which is available in PDF and Word formats, here

Routine Health Information Systems: A Curriculum on Basic Concepts and Practice—Facilitators’ Guide, which is available in PDF and Word formats, here

RHIS Curriculum Modules, available here