Understanding Public Health Informatics in Context of Health in Low and Middle-Income Countries

This chapter places public health informatics within a public health context. An understanding of PHI must be built on the perspective of public health as the health of populations. In LMICs it is closely related to an understanding of the primary healthcare approach, and the role and functions of public health systems, including the measurement of health status and equity, the effective coverage of different health programmes, and the utilization of different health services. This requires an understanding of the social and environmental determinants of healthcare, which need relevant data from other sectors as well. The architecture and development of public health informatics varies across nations and is path-dependent and context-specific. Many have evolved as monitoring support to externally financed vertical programmes, some as support for comprehensive primary health programmes and some from support systems for health insurance. The current information needs of health systems, transcends their respective origins, and requires both individual-based clinical information and aggregate population-based data.