Health Information Systems: The foundations of public health

Public health decision-making is critically dependent on the timely availability of sound data. The role of health information systems is to generate, analyze and disseminate such data. In practice, health information systems rarely function systematically. The products of historical, social and economic forces, they are complex, fragmented and unresponsive to needs. The result is painfully apparent in the inability of most countries to generate the data needed to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Solutions to the problem must be comprehensive; money alone is likely to be insufficient unless accompanied by sustained support to country systems development coupled with greater donor accountability and allocation of responsibilities.