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A Pilot Trial Of Applying Geographic Information System Technology To Health System Strengthening In The Upper East Region Of Ghana

Asuo-Mante Eric ¹ Mumuni Abdul-Jaleel ² Asuo-Mante Myriam ³ Yelifari Lawrence ⁴ Koku Awoonor-Williams John ⁵ F. Phillips James ⁶

1 Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 722 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032 USA

2 University for Development Studies (UDS), Post Offcie Box TL 1350, Tamale, Ghana

3 Boston College Connell School of Nursing, Maloney Hall, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 USA

4 Regional Health Directorate, Upper East Region, PMB- Bolgatanga, Ghana

5 Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Ghana Health Service, Accra, Ghana

6 Columbia University Medical Center, Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, 60 Haven Avenue, B-2 ,New York, NY 10032 USA

Abstract

Despite widespread use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to strengthening health systems, the application of GIS to health systems strengthening in resource-poor Sub-Saharan Africa remains rare. Over the June 2012 to December 2013 period, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) conducted a pilot application of GIS to health systems development in one rural impoverished district of the Upper East Region (UER). Workers were deployed to gather coordinates of health care facilities throughout the UER. Coordinates were linked to routine health information data, and utilized to generate maps for guiding task prioritization. For example, geocoded Community-based Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) program data were used to target services in communities where the prevalence of childhood acute malnutrition was relatively high. GIS was pivotal in tracking and responding to infectious disease morbidity from causes such as diarrheal diseases and tuberculosis. UER Regional Health Administration (RHA) authorities are currently utilizing GIS to map antenatal care coverage, skilled birth deliveries, neonatal mortality, still births, family planning service caseloads as well as for targeting programmatic action. Experience emerging from this trial attests to the value of GIS in contributing to efforts to strengthen health systems in rural impoverished regions of Africa.

Author Contributions

Received Sep 10, 2017 Accepted Oct 17, 2017 Published Nov 16, 2017

Copyright© 2017 Asuo-Mante Eric, et al.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Competing interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Funding Interests:

Citation:

Asuo-Mante Eric, Mumuni Abdul-Jaleel, Asuo-Mante Myriam, Yelifari Lawrence, Koku Awoonor-Williams John et al. (2017) A Pilot Trial Of Applying Geographic Information System Technology To Health System Strengthening In The Upper East Region Of Ghana Journal of Medical Informatics and Decision Making. - 1(1):1-9

DOI 10.14302/issn.2641-5526.jmid-17-1762

Introduction

Efforts to improve health systems functionality require geographic data that visualize the areal distribution of the burden of disease. By identifying localities where particular problems are concentrated, geographic mapping facilitates prioritization of resource deployment. In recent decades, a global consensus has emerged that geographic information system (GIS) technology represents the most effective tool for achieving the goal of gathering, storing and visualizing retrievable data, providing managers with the ability to observe, analyze and target localities where resources are best deployed. A consensus has emerged that GIS, if effectively used, can inform, empower and guide health system strategies for protecting human lives.1Equipped with such data, health administrators can be adequately informed about where actions should be targeted or capabilities should be improved. Despite this global consensus, practical application of GIS to health systems strengthening in Africa remain rare. Throughout rural Africa, infectious diseases still present as predominant components of the burden of disease. GIS is particularly important to the processes of tracking and responding to infectious disease outbreaks.

In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a framework for the strengthening of health systems.2 The WHO framework specified six interlinked “building blocks” comprised of activities and policies that were defined as “pillars” to strengthen health systems.2 Of these, “information for decision-making” represents a critical component of systems functioning. But, developing this vital component of the six-building blocks is impossible to pursue without actionable GIS data. Any effort to improve service delivery by optimizing the deployment of the health workforce or by providing appropriate in-service training, directly benefit from knowledge of the localities where particular risks are most prominent. GIS provides the means to visually represent georeferenced information that identify localities where particular health interventions merit emphasis or action.

This paper addresses two aims. In response to the WHO framework, the case study focuses on the contribution of GIS to the information for decision-making component of health systems strengthening in a severely resource and health deprived Sahelian region of Ghana. To address the need for implementation research on GIS in such settings, we, discuss ways in which the introduction of GIS has improved health in the locale. We conclude with recommendations on how GIS can be critical to developing and sustaining health systems in impoverished regions elsewhere in Africa.

Journal of Medical Informatics and Decision Making