Patient and programme monitoring is the systematic collection, management, analysis and use of service delivery data to support strategic decisions for patient and programme management. Clinical management of patients with noncommunicable diseases can be challenging as it generally requires health workers to keep an accurate longitudinal patient record for effective life-long treatment and care. Additionally, health workers have to routinely collect and compile data on resources such as laboratory and pharmacy stocks to generate input, output and outcome programme indicators to help identify gaps in performance and monitor progress. Linking patient record systems to routine health facility information system through digital technologies and application of metadata standards can reduce the burden of data aggregation and improve data quality and use. WHO provides standards and tools for patient and programme monitoring for accurate and reliable indicator comparison within and between countries. Countries can adapt these data standards and tools to primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care according to their information needs and capacities.

Improving data for decision-making: A toolkit for cervical cancer prevention and control programmes – Section 3: Patient and programme monitoring

Programme monitoring is a systematic means of capturing service delivery data, analysing it with appropriate aggregation and reporting tools, and using the resulting information to make strategic choices regarding programme management. The guiding information and tools in this section are intended to support comprehensive cervical cancer prevention programme monitoring using a facility level health management information system, while ensuring that the information gathered also supports clinical decision-making and patient management.

Toolkit for analysis and use of routine facility data: guidance for noncommunicable disease programme managers

This toolkit is designed to promote the effective use of health facility data generated from the implementation of WHO Package of essential noncommunicable disease interventions (PEN) specifically the detection, diagnosis, treatment and care of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases, and early cervical cancer diagnosis at primary care in low resource settings and cervical cancer screening and diagnosis at secondary level of care. It provides metadata standards for patient-level and facility-level data collection and suggested dashboards to support periodic reviews at health facility, subnational and national levels. A DHIS2 metadata package is provided to support countries that use DHIS2 for their routine health facility information system.