Congratulations to Jessica Helwig and co-authors for their recent publication in the International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics! Click here to access the article.
Using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, the authors conducted an evaluation of a health information systems (HIS) used at a hospital in Uganda to describe its areas of strength and limitations, develop potential system enhancements, and propose a framework for the integration of participatory and community-based research methods in an evaluation of a HIS. They found that the staff had mostly positive perceptions of the HIS, identifying it as being comprehensive and dynamic. Some staff recommendations to improve the HIS revolved around improving accessibility and ease of use, unabridged information flow, and adequate training. The use of a participatory approach led to more integrated outcomes and elaborate results, and allowed the stakeholders to foster ownership of the results.
CITATION
Helwig JE, Bishop-Williams KE, Berrang Ford L, Lwasa S, Namanya D, Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change Research Group, Bwindi Community Hospital (2020). Doing More Than Asking for Opinions: A Framework for Participation and Ecohealth in Health Information System Evaluations. International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics, 15(3): 22-46.
Figure 1 from Helwig et al (2020) outlines the expansion of the CDC guidelines for evaluation of health surveillance systems to include participatory methods.