Faculty Medicine and Health Sciences

Departments CO,NT and BMLs

Class: Third years, First Semester

EAU-
Garowe Topic: Health data management
compus Course Name: Health information System

Course Facilitator: Dr. M.Ahmed (MPH,MSC,RH &BSC-PH)

Date: 29th sept,2024

Lecture Overview

Health information is as good as

the data from where the
information was derived.
Therefore to have good health
information data must come from
reliable source and possess good
characteristics.
By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1 2 3
I. Describe the II. Explain III. Discuss
characteristics of sources of health methods of data
good data data collection
Characteristics of good health data

Source data transformed into information, it is

necessary to examine the characteristics of good,
Data that are capable of giving birth to good
information after processing.
A simple Mnemonic to help you remember the
characteristics is as follows:-
V - Valid
P - Periodicity
V - Verifiable
A - Appropriate
“The Vice Principal paid T - Timely
VAT on CAR parked in
front of Students C - Confidentiality
Common Room”
A - Acceptable
R - Reliable
S- Security
C - Currency
R - Relevant
1. Valid:- Data must be correct and trustworthy in its
quality.

2. Periodicity:- Measurement must be done based on the

nature of the data e.g. Pulse rate changes with activity and
so normal pulse should not be taken immediately after a
rigorous exercise.
3.Verifiable:- Data should have the characteristic of been
constituently rechecked or revalidated. E.g. when a child
has pneumonia the most verifiable sign is the Respiratory
rate.

4. Appropriate:- Data is appropriate when it meets the

needs of the users.
5. Timely:- Data should be available at the appropriate point in time for use.
Right data at the right time in the right place.

6. Confidentiality:- Allow only authorized persons access to the data.

7. Acceptable:- The recipient understand the data. There should be no hidden codes that end
users wouldn‘t understand.

8. Reliable:- Data should have value which ordinarily could not have been allocated by near
chance.

9. Security:- Good data must be protected, from misuse or abuse. To serve data, it is necessary to
Put procedure that protect the data in place.
10. Currency:- More recent value for the data are usually preferred.

11. Relevant:- The data must contain only what is pertinent in the
particular circumstance. If youneed to know of a child has completed the
immunization schedule, it is unnecessary to be asking for the school
teacher‘s name or if he has paid school fees or not

There are various types of Data that could be used to generate health
information. Data come from several sources depend on the type and
intended use
Types of Health Data
There are two main types of Health data that would
be relevant to us at this stage:

2. Secondary Health Data

1. Primary Health Data
Cont.…..
1. Primary Health Data: are data collected and used
only for the purpose for which they were collected. You
may wish to determine the percentage of the population
in your estate who have personal cars to take them to
Hospital, in case of sickness in the night when taxi
would not be available. You need to carry out a survey
of the community of people living in the estate. Collect
necessary data and calculate the percentage. Here
primary data is used.
2. Secondary Health Data: is that used for a purpose
different from the purpose for which the data was
collected originally. From the above example if you
found out that only 10% of the community have
personal cars. A company may want to establish a night
ambulance pick up targeting the 90% of the people
without personal cars.
i. Home-Based Records: This will include the PHC Child Health cards and Child Treatment
Card, PHC Personal Health Card and Adult treatment card and the Healthy Mother Card.

ii. Community Activities:- Community forms the basis of human activities, interaction and
environmental influences. Data from the community are used to determine important
epidemiological rates for various segments of the population. Examples Birth data, Death
data, Migration, New settlements etc. The community is a good source of health data. Sources
include village health committees, community leaders, voluntary village health workers and
traditional birth attendants.
iii. Hospital Activities:- Various data are routinely
collected from each time a patient visit the hospital. These
includes Name, Address, Age, Sex, Date of Birth, Date of
Admission, Length of Hospital Stay, Consultant in-charge of
Care, Diagnosis Investigation utilized, drugs prescribed,
• Discharge weight, Ambulatory Status of Patient, Next
Clinic appointment at
• discharge etc.
Health facility based records

Tracer diseases are outpatient attendance

- Antenatal care and pregnancy outcome

- Family, Planning, Immunization, Growth monitoring

- In-patient Care

- Disease Surveillance and Notification Forms

- Corresponding forms from facility based reports (HMI 001 Forms)

Report of Epidemics etc.

This data could be used to estimate the magnitude of health

problem and makes identification of Epidemics likely: It is also to
identify the percentage of the population receiving hospital-based
care. It helps planning for drug supplies, bed occupancy rates,
laboratories consumables, and other facilities requires in meeting
the provision of health care.
Cont.……
iv. Census
Data from Census provides demographic information such as age, sex,
occupation, mental status, type of accommodation, cooking methods
etc. This may not describe health directly, but reveals the underlying
population characteristics which may be related to health. Good
planning is usually premise on understanding of population
demography.
Type of health services required for the age, sex and ethnic structures
of the population.
v. Research Surveys and Reports
There is a heavy volume of health data in journal articles and other
research reports found in libraries of institutions,
vi. Intranets: Within the same
organization, health data could be found
and shared without restrictions.

Internets: This contains a magnitude of

information available to users from e-
libraries, e-Journals, websites Blogs, etc.
- Agriculture

Other Sectors - Education

and agencies
- Works and Housing

- Non-governmental
organizations, CBOs Faith
Based Organizations, NGOs
The processes/ methods of Data collection
How to collect data
1. Use of appropriate Forms for the collection of health data
from household, Community, Health facility, Local
Government Areas and forwarded to the state from where
information is sent to the Federal level.
2. Other methods of Data Collection methods include;
1. Quantitative Methods
2. Qualitative Methods
Quantitative method is based on measures of quality or
frequency. There must be consistency of administration.
Data may be coded and responses usually compared.
Questionnaires: Structured
Interviews, Telephone Interview, Face to
face interviews, Diaries/Record
analysis, Observations Records
Examples: Qualitative Methods emphasizes the
value of prose data, rather than
categories and codes. It is commonly
used in social surveys, or in exploratory
studies singly or in addition to
quantitative methods.
Example

Participant observation e.g. Participatory Community Diagnoses,

Informant Interviews, Focusgroup discussions, group interviewing and
historic case studies.

Diaries/Record Analysis: This is a documentary source of health data

such as clinical records, discover registry e.g. Sickle Cell Anemia register,
ART register, cancer registry and identification registers. This is very
useful for retrospective cohort studies. Many times information are not
complete, inaccurate, or poorly standardized.
Cont…

Observation: It involves simple visual observation and those

requiring special skills such as clinical examination or use of laboratory
tests. Example: In a research, it was observed that there was a time
difference between when patients arrived in the hospital and when
they seen by the doctor.

Structured Interview: Through the use of questionnaires which can

be administered by respondent or through an Interviewer. The self
administered questionnaires can be hand delivered, mailed ore-mailed.
- Poor/irrelevant data
Challenges
- Inadequate data
of Health
- Lack of cooperation of the sources
Data - Hard-to-reach environment for data collection
Collection - Season of the year or climatic changes
processes - Infrastructural breakdowns
- Poor logistic support and poor quality of data collection
- Natural or man-made disasters: war, military.
- Selection Bias
- Volunteer Effect
- Information bias e.g. low validity of instrument
- Confounding variables
- Chance observation
- Poor Storage of data
- Falsification of records
- Omission of vital information
- Collection of unnecessary data
- Missing records
Cont.….. - Delay in forwarding of collected data
- Poor feedback mechanisms-no feedback on reports
- Poor accessibility and dissemination process of results
- Lack of appreciation of the relevance of data collected
- Poor motivation for those entrusted with data
collection
- - Lack of harmonization of instruments
(Forms/Format) used in data collection.
Solutions to challenges

Proper planning, good understanding of terrain,

field testing of instrument before use, adequate
funding, adequate staffing, good understanding of
the needed data sets, operational feedback
pathways and well harmonized format form
reporting Forms and training and retraining of staff.
1. Critique the challenges of collecting and
managing health related data
2. Explain sources and characteristics of data
3.Differentiate qualitative data from
quantitative data