Cancer control strategies and role of Health Information Systems in Primary Health Care Centers

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The development of Health Information Systems (HIS) allows to improve processes associated to automated
data collection and to generate information related to cancer control. The purpose of this work was to identify the use of HIS in Primary Health  Care Centers (PHCC) for cancer prevention. METHODS: A multiple case study was conducted in 8 PHCC located  in the rural and peri-urban area of Diamante (province of Entre Ríos, Argentina). RESULTS: Three indicators were identified:  available human resources, characteristics of the target population, and HIS in current use. Registration processes, logistics for  their implementation and meanings assigned to the practices were analyzed. These empirical categories showed difficulties  related to HIS implementation: multiple platforms, fragmentary records, initial resistance to the implementation, and lack of  local articulation instances. DISCUSSION: HIS should be integrated in order to optimize data collection processes and to avoid  human errors in manual data upload. It is important that people in charge of registration acknowledge the importance of their  work, and to adapt HIS implementation strategies considering local contexts of use.