National Health Information Systems

Work within National Health Information Systems focuses on improving the accuracy and performance of health information systems. Frequently, local decision-makers must rely on information only available at the national level. We are currently developing small area estimation tools for these occasions to allow local decision-makers to better understand data trends within their own communities.

Major activities in National Health Information Systems:

Develop Small Area Estimation and Validation Methods:

We are developing frameworks for measuring and validating health outcomes, risk factors, and coverage of health interventions in geographically defined local or small areas. These small areas may encompass districts, counties, or subpopulations (e.g., age groups or sex) and may involve varying data availability and origin (e.g., survey or administrative). Specifically, we have designed a mechanism for systematic model building and testing the predictive validity of the model using existing empirical data. Our modeling framework combines the best of the various approaches frequently used in generating small area measurements – pooling data over time; borrowing strength spatially and using other measures of relatedness; and using individual and area-level covariates. We are testing the benefits of the models by applying them both to US county-level health outcomes and Demographic and Health Survey data from a number of countries. The results from the study – in conjunction with information from a small area measurement technical consultation hosted by IHME and the Health Metrics Network in April 2009 – will be used to determine what methods and techniques to field test in order to ascertain their practicality and validity.

Survey Design and Implementation:

Surveys are one type of instrument used for collecting data. While different surveys require different questions to fit their specific needs, the development of each survey relies upon expertise in general survey methodology, quality control metrics, protocol development, sample size calculation, sample frame selection and recruitment, and survey training. IHME designs instruments to capture information critical to hypothesis testing and methods validation. One example of this is the development of the verbal autopsy instrument for the Population Health Metrics Research Consortium Project. IHME designs instruments to collect data critical to achieving larger results in its projects, such as the Disability Weights Survey that is part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. It also makes assessments of best practices and interpretation of survey questions in context through its analyses.

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