Small steps towards an EU health information system

Excerpt

A Health Information System (HIS) can be defined as the necessary infrastructure for the monitoring of health activities and population health outcomes. It includes the collection, analysis, interpretation and inference, storage, transmission, display, dissemination, and further utilization of data and information from various sources. It is a complex, multi-layered system, aimed at producing health intelligence at local, national and international level. An international HIS has two major purposes. First, it aims to inform the agenda of international organizations that run different HISs, to monitor progress towards agreed targets. Second, it supports cross-country learning through international comparisons and sharing of information about effective policy actions. …