BACKGROUND:
Health information systems (HIS) are meant to support
decision-making at all levels of the system, including frontline
health workers. In field studies in
Côte d'Ivoire,
Mozambique and
Nigeria, we observed
health workers' interactions with the HIS and identified twelve
decision-making components of HIS. The objective of this framework synthesis is to portray these components in HIS
research, in order to inform the ideation of a
paper-based HIS intervention (PHISICC).
METHODS:
We searched studies in the Cochrane Central
Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Embase, Epistemonikos,
Medline, in-Process on the Ovid platform, OpenGrey, PDQ Evidence ("pretty darnd quick" Evidence), the
World Health Organization (
WHO)
Global Health Library and included studies focussing on HIS interventions,
data quality, information support tools and data use for
decision-making in the context of the governmental
health care sector. We assessed the methodological quality of studies using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. We synthesised the findings based on the
decision-making components of HIS and thematic areas.
RESULTS:
The search identified 6784 studies; 50 were included. Most of the 50 studies had quality concerns. All studies included at least one of the
decision-making components the most prominent were the technical aspects of 'recording' and '
reporting'. Data use for
decision-making was much less represented.
CONCLUSION:
HIS
research focuses on the more technical aspects of HIS. Further
research on HIS, given the strong push towards HIS digitalisation, should consider putting at the centre the
human experience of
decision-making and data use, in order to make HIS relevant for
quality of care.