I led a study on the digital transformation of the Health Management Information System (HMIS) in Thai-Myanmar border areas. The primary objective was to assess the impact of digital HMIS initiatives on ethnic health systems amid the ongoing armed conflict along the Thailand-Myanmar border. I presented this study at the Health Systems Research Conference in Nagasaki, Japan, in 2024.
In our context, we face significant challenges in strengthening the health information system (HIS) in primary care settings due to limited resources such as internet access, IT infrastructure, and electricity. Therefore, our focus is on enhancing the electronic Health Information System (eHIS) at the cluster health center level rather than fully implementing electronic health records (EHR) at individual health service delivery points. Hence, I would like to share the following goods and area of improvement of using eHIS in conflict affected setting.
Conclusion of the study: Using case-based digital HMIS is highly customizable, and interoperable, producing system-calculated indicators and headcount reports while maintaining the data quality. However, front-line health workers are burdened with recording individual patient information during active arm conflict settings.
Recommendation of the study: A digitalized Health Management Information System (HMIS) is essential for enhancing access to timely and accurate data, which is critical for effective health planning, management, and disease surveillance. However, based on the findings, the following key recommendations are suggested for its implementation in emergency context:
1) Aggregate Reporting: Aggregate reporting should be changed from case based recording to reduce the burden in health system
2) Interoperability: Promote interoperability between the health care digital sub system such as HMIS, HRIS and LMIS
3) Health Information Exchange: DRG and or ICD should be integrated into HMIS for enhancing health information exchange for disease classification, track morbidity, mortality and surveillance in the ethnic health system.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uEAnNOZv-KmlOey0c45XyJU7IKDdyUWE/view?usp=sharing