Using Open Source Health Applications to Strengthen the Health System
“No single software can serve all the needs of everyone in the health sector,” says Dr. Alvin Marcelo, associate professor of surgery and medical informatics at the University of the Philippines Manila. He’s working on a plan to use a set of free, open source applications to produce aggregated information that can help health-sector leaders address gaps and take steps to improve health outcomes.
The latest edition of CapacityPlus Voices, “Improving health systems with the power of open source,” highlights the value of free, open source health information applications such as CapacityPlus’s iHRIS Suite. These types of software products become more powerful when they can work together. For example, statistics on disease prevalence at the district level (from DHIS 2) could be integrated with data showing the skill mix of health workers for the same district (from iHRIS Manage), which could inform decisions about where certain health workers should be posted.
Dr. Marcelo also explains how he’s building capacity for health information management through the Master’s of Science in Health Informatics program at the University.
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