World Health Organization

World Health Organization Staff

This book provides a practical guide to the design and implementation of health information systems in developing countries. Noting that most existing systems fail to deliver timely, reliable, and relevant information, the book responds to the urgent need to restructure systems and make them work as both a resource for routine decisions and a powerful tool for improving health services. With this need in mind, the authors draw on their extensive personal experiences to map out strategies, pinpoint common pitfalls, and guide readers through a host of conceptual and technical options. Information needs at all levels - from patient care to management of the national health system - are considered in this comprehensive guide. Recommended lines of action are specific to conditions seen in government-managed health systems in the developing world. In view of common constraints on time and resources, the book concentrates on strategies that do not require large resources, highly trained staff, or complex equipment. Throughout the book, case studies and numerous practical examples are used to explore problems and illustrate solutions. Details range from a list of weaknesses that plague most existing systems, through advice on when to introduce computers and how to choose appropriate software and hardware, to the hotly debated question of whether patient records should be kept by the patient or filed at the health unit. The book has fourteen chapters presented in four parts. Chapters in the first part, on information for decision-making, explain the potential role of health information as a managerial tool, consider the reasons why this potential is rarely realized, and propose general approaches for reform which have proved successful in several developing countries. Presentation of a six-step procedure for restructuring information systems, closely linked to an organizational model of health services, is followed by a practical discussion of the decision-making process. Reasons for the failure of most health information to influence decisions are also critically assessed. Against this background, the second and most extensive part provides a step-by-step guide to the restructuring of information systems aimed at improving the quality and relevance of data and ensuring their better use in planning and management. Steps covered include the identification of information needs and indicators, assessment of the existing system, and the collection of both routine and non-routine data using recommended procedures and instruments. Chapters also offer advice on procedures for data transmission and processing, and discuss the requirements of systems designed to collect population-based community information. Resource needs and technical tools are addressed in part three. A comprehensive overview of the resource base - from staff and training to the purchase and maintenance of equipment - is followed by chapters offering advice on the introduction of computerized systems in developing countries, and explaining the many applications of geographic information systems. Practical advice on how to restructure a health information system is provided in the final part, which considers how different interest groups can influence the design and implementation of a new system, and proposes various design options for overcoming specific problems. Experiences from several developing countries are used to illustrate strategies and designs in terms of those almost certain to fail and those that have the greatest chances of success

Design and Implementation of Health Information Systems

Organisation mondiale de la santé

Jan A. Rozendaal

The first comprehensive, illustrated guide to vector control methods suitable for use by individuals and communities. Published at a time when large-scale control programs organized by governments are declining, the manual aims to help non-professionals understand the role of vectors in specific diseases and then select and use control methods that are appropriate, effective, affordable, and safe. Hundreds of simple, inexpensive and often ingenious techniques, developed and used in a host of different settings, are presented and described in this abundantly illustrated guide. The manual is intended to assist health workers at district and community level, in aid organizations, in refugee camps, or in resource development projects who do not have direct access to experts in entomology, yet need methods for controlling the vectors of such important diseases as malaria filariasis leishmaniasis schistosomiasis dengue and trypanosomiasis. With this audience in mind, the book combines non-specialist factual information about vectors and the diseases they cause with practical advice on control measures, whether involving the use of insecticides, environmental modifications, or the construction of simple devices from local materials. Details range from a table showing where and when the different groups of biting Diptera are active to a recipe for preparing plaster to protect homes against triatomine bugs, from step-by-step instructions for the construction of cheap insect traps, to advice on how to impregnate bed nets and curtains with suitable insecticides. The book opens with a brief description of recent changes in the approach to vector control, followed by a discussion of factors that can influence the success of control measures undertaken by individuals and communities. The core of the manual consists of eight chapters focused on each of the major vectors and groups of vectors: mosquitos and other biting Diptera; tsetse flies; triatomine bugs; bedbugs, fleas, lice, ticks, and mites; cockroaches; houseflies; cyclops; and freshwater snails. Each chapter includes pertinent facts about the vector's life cycle, behavior, and favorite habitats, the diseases it causes, and their clinical features, including opportunities for prevention, treatment, and control. Against this background, methods for control are presented in great detail. Since the use of control measures is often constrained by lack of resources as well as lack of knowledge, most methods described are simple and cheap, do not require much training or supervision, and are safe for both the user and the environment. The remaining chapters offer guidance on the principles and practice of house spraying with residual insecticides, and provide instructions for the safe use of pesticides and the emergency treatment of poisoning.

Methods for Use by Individuals and Communities

Vector Control

S. Shanmugarathan

C. Percy

L. Sobin

S. Whelan

Andrew Jack

This edition of ICD-O, the standard tool for coding diagnoses of neoplasms in tumour and cancer registrars and in pathology laboratories, has been developed by a working party convened by the International Agency for Research on Cancer / WHO. ICD-O is a dual classification with coding systems for both topography and morphology. The book has five main sections. The first provides general instructions for using the coding systems and gives rules for their implementation in tumour registries and pathology laboratories. Section two includes the numerical list of topography codes, which remain unchanged from the previous edition. The numerical list of morphology codes is presented in the next section, which introduces several new terms and includes considerable revisions of the non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukaemia sections, based on the WHO Classification of Hematopoietic and Lympoid Diseases. The five-digit morphology codes allow identification of a tumour or cell type by histology, behaviour, and grade. Revisions in the morphology section were made in consultation with a large number of experts and were finalised after field-testing in cancer registries around the world. The alphabetical index gives codes for both topography and morphology and includes selected tumour-like lesions and conditions. A guide to differences in morphology codes between the second and third editions is provided in the final section, which includes lists of all new code numbers, new terms and synonyms added to existing code definitions, terms that changed morphology code, terms for conditions now considered malignant, deleted terms, and terms that changed behaviour code.

ICD-O

International Classification of Diseases for Oncology

World Health Organization Staff

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