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Abstract:The District Health Information System (DHIS) software from the Health Information System Programme (HISP) based in South Africa is widely implemented in many developing countries as a health data analysis tool. Through the HISP Tanzania project, the DHIS was piloted in five districts in Tanzania. The objective of this study was to qualify and quantify the extent to which district health workers consider the adaptation of the DHIS software to the needs of the routine health management information system. In a period of 14 months (from June 2003 to August 2004) data were collected from health workers trained to use the software through a triangulation of various qualitative data collection techniques including interview, questionnaire, participant observations and retrospective testing. The software was evaluated in terms of reliability, usability and user satisfaction. In general the reliability of the software was rated high but its usability was rated to be low. The software was found not to accommodate some health data from various health programmes and there was a mismatch between the implemented online data entry forms/reports and their respective paper-based forms/reports. The study recommends improved design of the DHIS user interface (forms) and reports to replicate the paper-based forms in order to assure usability and reduce the incidences and impact of human errors in the keying-in of health data.

Several innovative 'participatory sensing' initiatives are under way in East Africa. They can be seen as local manifestations of the global notion of Digital Earth. The initiatives aim to amplify the voice of ordinary citizens, improve citizens' capacity to directly influence public service delivery and hold local government accountable. The popularity of these innovations is, among other things, a local reaction to the partial failure of the millennium development goals (MDGs) to deliver accurate statistics on public services in Africa. Empowered citizens, with access to standard mobile phones, can 'sense' via text messages and report failures in the delivery of local government services. The public disclosure of these reports on the web and other mass media may pressure local authorities to take remedial action. In this paper, we outline the potential and research challenges of a 'participatory sensing' platform, which we call a 'human sensor web.' Digital Africa's first priority could be to harness continent-wide and national data as well as local information resources, collected by citizens, in order to monitor, measure and forecast MDGs.

A well organized and coordinated health reporting system is critical for improved health system and health care services delivery. For a long time, the Tanzanian Government has been committed to support global efforts to improve the quality of health data for increased accountability and evidencebased decision-making by introducing electronic medical records (EMR) systems at facility level and computerize a national reporting system (district health information system (DHIS2)). It is also committed to ensure decision makers have access to high quality routine data from providers of services at health facilities to those responsible for running health programmes at the health ministry (MOHCDGEC, 2017). However, data collection and reporting at facility level is error prone and task demanding due to the manual processes of collecting, aggregating, and sharing data, as a result rarely data are used to monitor programmes and make decisions beyond individual patient care. With the introduction of electronic medical records system, the goal of the paper is to ensure decision-makers have access to high-quality health data that are generated at the facilities, and they value and routinely use the data for decision-making. In doing so, the paper envisages improved practices around data collection, reporting and use and institutionalization of data through integrations of EMR and DHIS2.

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