Overview: Bolivian Health Information
System Internet Case Study


The Bolivian Ministry of Health (Secretaria Nacional de Salud) recently launched its own web site and database. This is one of the first examples of a health information system in a developing country that is accessible dynamically on the Internet. The system, developed by the companies Informed Decisions and Logical Support, under a subcontract with USAID's Data for Decision Making (DDM) Project, has the following unique characteristics:

  1. The user can interactively design tables, indicators, and graphs for all the basic health activities in Bolivia, at the country level and down to every health establishment in the country.

  2. Detailed population projections, as well as estimates of expected numbers of deliveries and of pregnant women, can be made down to the municipality level and added to the database.

  3. The user can extract establishments and areas associated with USAID-funded projects and measure the impact of USAID-funded projects in key health and reproductive health interventions.

  4. The data are updated on a monthly basis, and the level of reporting is monitored on a monthly basis for different sub-national areas and every health establishment.

  5. The system directly accesses the original database.

  6. The system has been developed with high decision-makers in mind and is very easy to use.


The establishment of the public web site involved a series of steps. Data collection has been in place for about five years. DDM's contribution started with analysis and presentation of the data. In October 1995, the DDM project got the ministry connected via dial-up to the Internet. Early in 1996, DDM installed a LAN within the Secretaria and started an Intranet. Eventually enough confidence emerged within the Secretaria to take the data public, but only at the departmental level (the system is capable of returning data at the establishment level).

Thus, the decision by the ministry to establish a presence on the Internet was made after the infrastructure, training, and technology transfer took place. By proceeding slowly, the ministry was able to absorb the technology at its own pace and take part knowledgeably in the decision to go public.

For more information, please email: James E. Tarvid tarvid@ls.net or
Dr. Oleh Wolowyna olehw@ aol.com.

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