Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111101

Mark Spohr, MD, MEASURE Evaluation, John Snow, Inc., 1616 N. Fort Myer Dr., 11th Floor, Arlington, VA 22209, 703-528-7474, mspohr@jsi.com

A national data warehouse can be a valuable resource for information on health status and health system function. This strategic information can be put to good use in developing health policy and also for health system management. The design and operation of national data warehouses in Papua New Guinea and Malaysia will be discussed with additional experience from South Africa. Types and sources of information for data warehouse design will be discussed as well as procedures for gathering and updating the information. Use of the data warehouse to inform health policy, monitoring and evaluation, and management will be discussed. Data analysis techniques including web based queries and reporting will be explored. Analysis techniques will be discussed in the policy context. The burden of disease calculation combined with cost effectiveness information has been particularly useful in formulating health policy and allocating resources at the national level in these countries. The data warehouse can generate monitoring and evaluation indicators and regional patterns of disease. This is particularly useful in program and facilities management and for national and international reporting. The district level is a crucial link in most health systems. A national data warehouse can also be useful at the district level for program planning management, and monitoring. Methods for accessing information and making it useful at the district level will be presented. Advanced data warehouse analysis techniques such as data mining will also be discussed to show how they can discover new knowledge about disease patterns.

Learning Objectives:

• Name six types/sources of data for a data warehouse
• Explain the concepts of disease burden and cost-effectiveness and how this can be used to help set health policy.
• List three key factors in promoting use of data at the district level

Keywords: Planning, Management

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation