WHO guidance on electronic systems to manage data for tuberculosis care and control

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) actively promotes eHealth, which includes electronic health information systems, as means to generate better data on tuberculosis and on interventions to control tuberculosis. However, introducing electronic data management needs long-term investment in both staff and infrastructure and has profound social and organizational impacts. It is easy to make costly mistakes and to lose potential benefit due to poor organizational, technical, or financial planning and unrealistic expectations. The Stop TB Department of WHO in collaboration with technical partners have just released guidance on planning, developing, and managing such systems. The document provides practical advice to decision makers and others involved in tuberculosis control on planning revisions to information systems, whether they are creating new systems or enhancing existing ones. The guide uses examples from eHealth projects recently implemented in Brazil, China, Pakistan and other settings to illustrate how projects in diverse settings have overcome different challenges.