Part of the Government of Kenya's Big 4 Agenda includes the attainment of universal health coverage. As such, the government is taking several steps to improve the quality of health care, including strengthening health information systems across the spectrum of data collection, information generation, analysis, and utilization to support effective decision-making among producers and consumers of health information. Kenya's Ministry of Health has also developed several policies and guidelines that relate to the use of national health information systems. These systems generate massive pools of data at different levels, often stored in different formats across various systems and locations, making access, sharing, and analysis difficult or impossible to achieve. Ongoing efforts by the Ministry of Health are geared towards digitizing health records and making different health information systems interoperable.
The Kenya Health Information Systems Interoperability Framework (KHISIF) supports the Ministry of Health’s strategy of providing patient-centric, joined-up health services by facilitating the interoperability of health information systems. The term “interoperability” describes the ability of different information systems, devices and applications to access, exchange, integrate, and cooperatively use data in a coordinated manner, within and across organizational, regional, and national boundaries, to provide timely and seamless portability of information and optimize the health of individuals and populations across all levels. The KHISIF defines a collection of specifications aimed at facilitating the interoperability of health information systems. By implementing these interoperability specifications, health systems owners can ensure interoperability between health information systems, and thus streamlined health care services that can help improve health outcomes for all Kenyans.
>> Download Kenya Health Information Systems Interoperability Framework (PDF, 700 KB)
>> Watch a webinar on the Kenya Health Information Systems Interoperability Framework.
