National roll out of District Health Information Software (DHIS 2) in Kenya, 2011 – Central Server and Cloud Based Infrastructure

Abstract

Recent years have seen an increasing focus on the strengthening of Health Information Systems (HIS) in countries. On the ground, however, HIS development in Africa has proved difficult due to; 1) poor and unevenly developed infrastructure, 2) fragmented health programs and donor initiatives and 3) poor capacity. In this paper, we present the case study of Kenya, where a web based system for data management was developed using the free and open source DHIS2 platform and rolled out countrywide during 2011. This case study shows that with the improvement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, it is possible to deploy web based systems countrywide in Africa using central server and cloud based infrastructure. Further, by demonstrating success, rapid deployment and increasing data reporting rates, additional health programs and donor initiatives are now joining forces, and thereby helping integrating the previously fragmented HIS. The lessons regarding capacity development is that the instant access to own data, from anywhere and at any time, has greatly improved the sense of ownership to the data and the system and thereby enabling important learning-by-doing processes significantly complementing the formal training and support activities. Users across Kenya are now able to access the system online through modems over the mobile Internet and web enabled mobile telephones. The new HTML 5 web standard is adding to this positive technology development through increased memory in the browsers, which makes it possible to capture data offline and thereby better handling fluctuations in connectivity and poor Internet.

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