Informatics and Knowledge Management Directorate

Areas of interest

Information systems in health services
The division conducts studies at health institutions on how health information is generated, collected, captured, processed, analysed and used. This kind of research helps to improve the quality of data used in patient care and health system management.

The research includes studying the processes relating to the design, development, implementation and evaluation of health information systems.

Studies are also conducted to support the development of appropriate standards for information system content and for communication between information systems. Information standardisation is a crucial mechanism for ensuring seamless movement between health care environments for patients, and effective information support for management and planning at all levels of the healthcare system.

Examples include:

• An evaluation study of the integrated hospital information system in Limpopo - the first study of its kind in South Africa.
• A study on the utilisation of routine health information in the decision making of managers in Mpumalanga. The report highlights the complexity of decision making in a health environment.

Both these reports are available on www.hst.org.za

Bridging language barriers
South Africa's eleven official languages form a potential barrier to effective health care: doctors and patients need to be able to communicate effectively in order to ensure that a correct diagnosis is made and that patients understand instructions.

To overcome the language barrier, HIRD has completed a study on the development of medical terms in three of South Africa's indigenous languages (isiXhosa, seTswana and seSotho).

In peer review comments on a paper about the study (A Model of Developing Medical Terms in Indigenous Languages of South Africa, submitted and accepted by the scientific committee for the Medinfo 2004 conference in San Francisco, USA in September 2004) the work done by HIRD was recognized as being a new approach to developing medical terms.

The eventual goal of the HIRD's work in this area is to develop a medical dictionary in all the indigenous languages of South Africa.

In addition, contract research funding is being sought for the development of a multi-lingual tool for clinician-patient interaction. The aim of the tool is to provide an interface between clinicians and patients who speak different languages.

Closer to home - a proposed health kiosk
The aim of the proposed health kiosk is to provide health information (including answers to basic health questions) to people in environments where there may not be easy access to health services.

Simple decision support systems are envisaged that will enable users to make first-line healthcare decisions. The kiosks could be linked to vending facilities providing basic medication for the treatment of common ailments.

Studies will have to be conducted to find out how health information can be developed, packaged and disseminated using easy-to-operate and robust technologies for use by general members of (especially rural) communities.

Preliminary work is being done to develop an interface for the proposed health kiosk. The interface will consist of a combination of indigenous languages and graphics, which will make it easier to use for people with low literacy levels.