Developing Insights from the DHISv2 Analytics at KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP)

Developing better, faster insights from the DHISv2 analytics platform using patient-level hospital datasets

• With 50+ Ministries of Health globally working with DHISv2, optimising the use of DHISv2 for decision-making at different levels in the health system is vital for routine clinical surveillance and health service planning and delivery, ranging from the influencing of policy to the programming of action. The rationale is that better quality data that are both relevant and comprehensive will increase the use of these data in action and decision-making, ultimately improve health service delivery and health outcomes, and identify and mitigate against emergent health crises, e.g. COVID-19.
• However, neither ownership of nor access to good quality data guarantees the actual use of clinical data collected from routine care. To ensure information use, relevant data need to be collected, processed, and analysed in an accessible format. This problem of underused data, and indeed the absence of data use entirely from routinely provided care outside vertical programmes (e.g. TB, HIV, Malaria, Immunisation, etc.), is widespread and has been evident for decades.
• For meaningful comparisons of actual performance between hospitals, for benchmarking and identification of best practices, and meaningful clinical surveillance of diseases and mortality, a comprehensive dataset of case mix factors should, therefore, be collected and accounted for at the individual patient level. Presently, within the Kenyan context, there is limited rigorous exploration of the ways DHISv2 can harness patient-level data from routine care outside vertical programmes for use in routine decision-making and subsequent programming of action
• The objective of this internship is to explore the feasibility of conducting syndromic surveillance for all facility admissions using the DHISv2 tracker and DHISv2 analytics modules.