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Analysis of the Acceptance Process of District Health Information Systems (DHIS) for Vertical Health Programmes: A Case Study of TB, HIV/AIDS and Malaria Programmes in Tanzania
Author(s) -
Kiwanuka Achilles,
Kimaro Honest C.,
Senyoni Wilfred
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.41
H-Index - 18
ISSN - 1681-4835
DOI - 10.1002/j.1681-4835.2015.tb00508.x
Subject(s) - tanzania , interoperation , information system , process (computing) , medicine , knowledge management , business , computer science , engineering , geography , interoperability , environmental planning , world wide web , electrical engineering , operating system
District Health Information System (DHIS) is used in many parts of the world to report aggregated data at the district level. Tanzania is one of the countries where the ministry of health endorsed DHIS for such use. Although the system has been rolled out recently throughout the country, Vertical Health Programmes (VHPs) are on their way to fully adopting the system. The objective of this study was to analyse the acceptance process of DHIS by three VHPs so as to examine the facilitating conditions and the challenges that they face. Data was collected through interviews, document review and observation. Analysis of the data showed the facilitating conditions to be having a consensus on which VHP indicators to include in the DHIS, existence of infrastructure including the routine Health Information System (HIS), and support from development partners. Challenges of acceptance process of DHIS include inadequate human resource for HIS, data quality and information flow issues, and existence of separate monitoring and evaluation systems for the VHPs. The study recommends integration or interoperation of DHIS with VHP systems, creating a pool of resources for HIS, training and motivating human resource for HIS.