Resource Type: Report
Authors: Michael P. Rodriguez, Gajinder Pal Singh and Jim Setzer
Published: May 31, 2014

Resource Description:

A highly functioning national health information system (HIS) facilitates transparent and evidence-based decision making that ultimately leads to improvements in the health status of a country’s population. Rather than reflecting a single structure through which routine health statistics in a country are reported, most country health information systems are made up of multiple sub-systems that may or may not be well-coordinated, potentially collect some of the same information, and typically place the largest burden for reporting on those at the lowest levels of the health system, the primary health care facility staff. All of these characteristics present risks to the ability of the health system to function efficiently and effectively. The Health Metrics Network (HMN) Framework, published in 2008, provides a useful lens for viewing the efforts of the Republic of India to improve the production and availability of health information at all levels of its health system, from health facility to district, state, national and international levels, and to use that information to improve health outcomes.

The objectives of this report are to use the HMN Framework to examine, organize and summarize some of the publicly available written information on the Indian HIS and to serve as a resource tool for stakeholders throughout the Indian health system pursuing efforts to strengthen the HIS. This report is intended to highlight the progress that has been made to date and to discuss some of the gaps in the Indian HIS using the HMN Framework, which can then form the basis of discussions on HIS strengthening priorities.