PHIRI's COVID-19 Health Information System Assessments 2022-2023
PHIRI aims to map the health information systems (HIS) that monitor the effects of COVID-19 on population health, assessing the COVID-19 health information flows in countries through virtual country visits. Virtual country visits are carried out in selected European countries that are part of the PHIRI consortium. After attending a series of workshops, assessors from several countries are performing targeted interviews with key national players that process or govern COVID-19 population health information. The following domains are covered: data collection and data sources, data analysis and data management, development and use of indicators, human and technical resources, knowledge translation, reporting and dissemination.
Download the one-pager on the COVID-19 Health Information System Assessments here
Aim of the assessments
The assessments are expected to:
| 1 | Result in the identification of strengths and weaknesses of the different data flows across HIS, whilst monitoring the (broader) effects of COVID-19 in the examined countries. |
| 2 | Provide opportunities for other countries to learn from the experiences that will be gained during the assessments, and build on these when assessing their own HIS/ HI data flows. |
| 3 | Potentially identify data sources that may not have been used or fully exploited yet and feed them to the Health Information Portal. |
| 4 | Create opportunities for engagement and knowledge exchange with national stakeholders and authorities. |
| 5 | Contribute to capacity building across Europe, which in turn can contribute towards reducing HI inequalities within and between countries. |
| 6 | Identify key recommendations for resilient HIS and towards increased preparedness for future crisis. |
How are these assessments organised?
An adapted version of the Health Information System assessment tool developed by the WHO Regional Office for Europe, including the add-on module on Infectious Diseases, is used for the assessments. Each assessment includes a preparatory desk report, interviews with national (and regional) stakeholders, a final report including a one-pager describing the COVID-19 HIS for population health in the country, a SWOT analysis and SMART recommendations, and a follow-up stakeholder meeting.
Find the manual for performing these assessments here
Which countries are part of this exercise?
The assessments are performed in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal by the end of the project (November 2023). Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Malta, Norway, Hungary and Netherlands were assessed in 2022.
Published one-pagers
- State-of-play of the COVID-19 Health Information System - Italy
- State-of-play of the COVID-19 Health Information System - Ireland
- State-of-play of the COVID-19 Health Information System - Malta
- State-of-play of the COVID-19 Health Information System - Portugal
Organised events on the assessments
- Online training for assessors and assessed countries
- European Public Health Week May 20 2022 (in collaboration with the TEHDAS Joint Action)
- Midterm project multistakeholder meeting June 23 2022 (in collaboration with the TEHDAS Joint Action)
- Workshop at European Public Health Conference 2022: abstract and slides
- Pitch at the Rapid Exchange Forum Special Edition February 27 2023
- Workshop at the World Congress on Public Health 2023
Country visits in other projects
JA InfAct (Joint Action for Health Information) - 2018/2019
JA InfAct carried assessments of health information systems in 9 countries. This exercise aimed to address health information inequalities between countries through peer-review. More on this methodology here.
JA TEHDAS (Towards the European Health Data Space) - 2022
JA TEHDAS visits European countries with the aim of collecting an overview of the state-of-play of the national health data management developments in relation to the European health data space, check the results of these visits here.
EU interoperability with HERA's IT platform - 2023
This project supports participating countries to enhance and improve national IT systems in an efficient and coordinated manner, with the objective to obtain the needed interoperability with HERA’s IT platform. In country visits, the national landscape maturity towards supporting the EU interoperability with HERA's IT platform will be mapped.
