18. Integration of Public Sector Healthcare Information Systems with Private Sector Healthcare Providers in Pakistan: Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions

Globally the implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) in the healthcare sector has brought about significant improvement in the delivery of healthcare services, yet such transformation is still under way or in its infancy in many developing countries. Pakistan is a lower middle-income country (LMIC) where the health status of population and management of health systems data are very poor. In Pakistan, healthcare services are being provided by public and private sector organisations as well as by individual practitioners. Healthcare delivery and disease monitoring and evaluation are supported by health information systems (HISs) and district health information systems (DHIS). However, like in many other LMICs, implementation of HIS and DHIS is under-deployed in Pakistan mainly due to non-integration of public and private healthcare providers’ information systems. Thus there is a pressing need for exploring and facilitating the effective use and integration of public sector DHIS with the private healthcare sector in Pakistan (as well as other similar LMICs) – not only for the diagnosis, monitoring and healthcare delivery in general but also for planning and decision-making processes. Such a systemic change will usher in a new era of increased availability of high-quality accessible and relevant health information, which will be of great benefit to the population’s health.