The thrust of the Medium Term Health Strategy is on quality care and efficiency. Also the decentralization of the Ministries, Departments and agencies as well as local governance, requires that decision –making takes place at all levels of the sectors. Managers therefore require adequate information for making informed decisions. This means that relevant data must be collected, analysed and used at these levels. This expectation poses a challenge to data managers and medical record officers especially in the health sector at the district level.

 

The task of collecting, analyzing and interpreting data for decision-making falls in the domain of biostatistics staff at the various health facilities and units of the Ministry of Health. The current training of the existing staff is too basic in content focusing mainly on aspects of medical records keeping. This limitation does not enable the collection, analysis and interpretation of data in the broad context of health service delivery and management

 

Microcomputers are being introduced into the Health and other Sectors at various levels and are now being seen as essential tools for effective work performance. However, the impact of the technology in the Ministries and Departments is yet to be harnessed. Despite the increasing number of computers in the sectors, there has been very little impact on the quality of information generated. This is mainly because the staff lacks the skills and confidence to exploit the new technology, to analyse and solve information problems. This can only be achieved if key personnel are trained in the latest techniques to enable them exploit the full potentials of the technology.

 

To meet the requirements of contemporary management environment, there is the need for improvement in capacity building towards health management information system, data collection, analysis, interpretation, dissemination, decision-making and action, storage and retrieval of information.