Panama

Grant amount: $100,000

Details: Field evaluating surveillance systems, HIS assessment, consensus building with national stakeholders.

Diagnostic Study of the Panamanian HIS

Panama has been making substantial efforts to improve data and information management for the purpose of public policy development and social surveillance. One of the key initiatives in this area has been the Indicators for Development System (SID),1 a joint effort between the Social Cabinet and the Statistics and Censuses Directorate of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic. The SID recognizes that “while the complexity of the decision-making process requires up-to-date statistical data on the characteristics of variables involved in such decisions to guarantee their success, the indicators depend on the statistical inputs used to construct them.”

The Health Metrics Network (HMN) project aims essentially at developing a comprehensive improvement plan to: unify the Panamanian Health Information System (HIS); improve capacities for basic analysis of equity in the health sector; include socioeconomic data in censuses and household services; improve vital event records; create monitoring units in low-income areas; and improve the collection and decentralized use of information for health-policy decision making. Within this framework, a diagnostic study and evaluation of the system are needed to design the model that the country requires, to make it possible to prepare a global development plan and guide the future development of the subcomponents of the HIS.

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