Integrating health information systems in Sierra Leone

Abstract

This paper presents an ongoing project in Sierra Leone to integrate health information systems at district and national level through a novel approach. Employing solar-powered low-energy computers running Linux, a wide consortium of local and international actors have tried to counter the severe problems of electricity supply breakdowns and computer viruses. The paper discusses the experiences from this effort, as well as the integration process itself, and the corresponding capacity building strategies. The findings so far suggest that alternative technologies, namely solar power and open source software, can be fruitful to apply in such infrastructural settings as Sierra Leone presents. Furthermore, the technical solution to an intermediary step towards integration shows some promising results.