Thank you Theo for bringing this interesting topic!
I want to share here the experience from my country where MOH is very application oriented. There is already a fully rolled out application to manage the LMIS, HMIS, Laboratory Information System, Disease surveillance, HIV patient and even OVC. There is also a lot of new initiatives that are taking place to computerize one aspect or another of the national HIS.
We can say that this has somehow paid off since despite the close proximity of two Ebola affected countries remains Ebola free. Unfortunately those systems are still working in silos making it difficult to get a comprehensive view of the health information produced. The country is beginning to understand the problem but given that “owning the data” mean “owning the power and thus the money” each party is not seeing integration or interoperability as something good for them. In this context, I think the interoperability process should start by a behavioral change agenda…
my two cents to the debate,
Romain
HMIS Advisor MEASURE Evaluation/JSI
