Maturity Assessment of Kenya’s Health Information System Interoperability Readiness
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Date
2021
Authors
Nyangena, Job
Rajgopal, Rohini
Ombech, Elizabeth Adhiambo
Oloo, Enock
Luchetu, Humphrey
Wambugu, Sam
Kamau, Onesmus
Nzioka, Charles
Gwer, Samson
Ndirangu, Moses Ndiritu
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMJ Health & Care Informatics
Abstract
Background The use of digital technology in healthcare
promises to improve quality of care and reduce costs
over time. This promise will be difficult to attain without
interoperability: facilitating seamless health information
exchange between the deployed digital health information
systems (HIS).
Objective To determine the maturity readiness of the
interoperability capacity of Kenya’s HIS.
Methods We used the HIS Interoperability Maturity Toolkit,
developed by MEASURE Evaluation and the Health Data
Collaborative’s Digital Health and Interoperability Working
Group. The assessment was undertaken by eHealth
stakeholder representatives primarily from the Ministry
of Health’s Digital Health Technical Working Group. The
toolkit focused on three major domains: leadership and
governance, human resources and technology.
Results Most domains are at the lowest two levels of
maturity: nascent or emerging. At the nascent level, HIS
activities happen by chance or represent isolated, ad hoc
efforts. An emerging maturity level characterises a system
with defined HIS processes and structures. However, such
processes are not systematically documented and lack
ongoing monitoring mechanisms.
Conclusion None of the domains had a maturity
level greater than level 2 (emerging). The subdomains
of governance structures for HIS, defined national
enterprise architecture for HIS, defined technical
standards for data exchange, nationwide communication
network infrastructure, and capacity for operations and
maintenance of hardware attained higher maturity levels.
These findings are similar to those from interoperability
maturity assessments done in Ghana and Uganda
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Citation
Nyangena J, Rajgopal R, Ombech EA, et al. Maturity assessment of Kenya’s health information system interoperability readiness. BMJ Health Care Inform 2021;28:e100241. doi:10.1136/ bmjhci-2020-100241