Kenya was the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to deploy a completely online national HIS in September 2011

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

I note this mostly in surprise, as I realize how many efforts there are now ongoing to modernize health systems all over the world:

Kenya was the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to deploy a completely online national HIS in September 2011. All districts and selected health facilities are connecting to the DHIS 2 national server using Mobile Internet (dongles/usb modems) on their computers. Kenya allows self-registration of personal user accounts.

After 1 year of country-wide use the national reporting rates for the major monthly forms are stable above 90 percent. Approximately 2000 users are entering data and using the data analytics features in DHIS 2 to improve management of health districts and other administrative areas. The Kenya ministry of health allows for people to self-register their account, so you are free to log in and have a look.

Kenya has through the DHIS 2 Tracker customised the WHO SARA tool to conduct an extensive facility survey directly in DHIS 2. Having a full inventory of availability and readiness of services for all health facilities, public and private, will be a big boost for the data analysis in the national Kenyan DHIS 2 system.

To foster data use and simplify access to the data in DHIS 2 and other systems in the HIS architecture a web portal is under development. This Drupal-based portal makes full use of the DHIS 2 Web-API accessing pre-defined data analysis outputs like tables, charts and maps, as well as plugins to embed the Data Visualizer and GIS modules or to display favourite charts in a dynamic carousel.

The Kenyan DHIS 2 system is seeing an increase in the use of the collaborative tools. District officers from different sides of the country are using Interpretations to share charts and discuss possible interventions to improve health care, and daily many users are sending feedback messages or requests for support to the national team using the messages feature.

Post external references

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    https://www.dhis2.org/inaction
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