Routine health information system and health facility data for neglected tropical diseases: general guidance for national programme managers and data clerks
Overview
Given the heterogeneity of NTDs, information pathways and data management practices supporting programmes to eradicate, eliminate and control these diseases have tended to be equally diverse. This situation has created an uneven, complex information pathway beset by duplication and dispersion of effort, inefficiencies and missed opportunities. The WHO-led development of the RHIS provides a unique opportunity to address several of these challenges and harness investments in systems by several stakeholders to strengthen national health information systems. In response, the Global NTD Programme has collaborated with the corporate WHO RHIS toolkit initiative by developing programme-specific guidance. The NTD component of the RHIS toolkit comprises this general guidance document, several disease-specific documents, and an area-specific document on logistics information management systems for medicines and health products.
This general guidance document provides an overarching description of the NTD indicators required to monitor programme progress in alignment with the road map and its related strategic companion documents including the monitoring and evaluation framework (“the M&E Framework”). Its main purpose is to provide high-level concepts for NTD programme design for data management and use for health information system managers wherever NTD data are aggregated, through the hierarchy of administrative levels.
The disease-specific guidance documents provide recommendations for the basic minimum set of disease-specific indicators to be included in national routine health information systems starting at the health facility level. The development of these documents has been led by the disease focal points of the WHO Global NTD Programme in close collaboration with the respective NTD community of experts. The purpose of each document is to inform basic primary data collection of the minimum set of indicators, especially at health facilities. These documents should be used to conduct data management training that covers indicators relevant to the endemic diseases in the district. Annex 3 of the M&E framework describes the disease-specific indicators used for tracking progress of programmes towards meeting established targets.
NTD data are collected through a variety of means including population-based surveys, data routinely reported through health facilities and data reported routinely after community-based interventions. This document emphasizes the key NTD data that are generated during clinical interactions with patients and community-based interventions within the catchment areas of the corresponding health facilities. NTD data should flow through data health information systems where they will be validated, compiled, analysed and used for decision-making at each supervisory level. Use of the national health information system facilitates mainstreaming of NTD data and enables systemic data strengthening and sustainability. NTD data should flow through established data pathways throughout the different levels of the health system within countries.
This document does not include guidance on data collection from sectors beyond health (such as indicators on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), veterinary public health/One Health and education) and summary data collected through Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems. Consequently, it does not include detailed information on these complementary aspects. These additional data should be obtained by the NTD programme and data managers from the relevant primary databases at country level for consideration during decision-making to inform how best to use complementary interventions in support of the NTD programme.
