An overview of the District Health Information System Software (DHISv1.3)
September 2005
An open source, user friendly, flexible freeware, the district health information systems software (DHIS) has been developed by the Health Information Systems Programme (HISP) for use in a public health MIS. DHIS supports functions of accurate and valid data collection, aggregation, storing, sharing, transmission, analysis, reporting, display and use of health data at and between every level of a local health system. It has been continuously adapted for field conditions by participatory efforts between health care and software professionals in several developing countries since 1994. This has resulted in the DHIS software addressing vital issues such as user friendliness, data accuracy, adaptation to local language, and design of indicators based on local need. In India, HISP is being implementd in two districts in Andhra Pradesh state, while Kerala state has evinced interest DHIS for implementation based on the HISP model. The software is developed by the international HISP team in accordance with the principles of "Free and Open Source Software" philosophy, and is therefore freely available to anyone who wishes to use and modify it, as long as it is not abused for commercial purposes. This is the cheapest way of generating software suited to the contextualised needs of a state (Adapted from author).