Conference “Children's health monitoring current issues” was organized

On 5 November 2015, a conference of the project  “Development and Implementation of the Child Health Monitoring Information System for Systematic Monitoring of the Children’s Health Condition and Purposeful Health Policy Making” (NOR-LT11-SAM-01-TF-01-001) financed by 2009-2014 Norwegian Financial Mechanisms Programme No. LT11 "Public Health Initiatives" of carried out by the Institute of Hygiene was held in Trakai district.

Specialists from public health offices, the Ministry of Health, as well as doctors from municipalities and other specialists working with health monitoring attended the conference to discuss the new Child Health Information System.

During the conference, reports were read by representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Institute of Hygiene, the Health Education and Disease Prevention Centre, as well as the managers and executors of the project "Development and Implementation of the Child Health Monitoring Information System for Systematic Monitoring of the Children’s Health Condition and Purposeful Health Policy Making".

Information on the support of the Norwegian Financing Mechanism for projects that increase the welfare of the health of children and youth was presented during the event. The scope and specific fields of the implementation of this mechanism in Lithuania were also discussed. The use of relevant, accurate and useful information on a national level in order to define existing problems and evaluate the applied solutions as precisely as possible was named to be one of the means of ensuring the welfare of the health of children and youth.

The project manager presented the main novelties of the implementation of the Child Health Monitoring Information System project developed in 2014–2016.

A practice related to data collection and use in the field of child health monitoring which is currently popular in Lithuania was presented in order to properly evaluate the potential benefits of the Child Health Monitoring Information System. Based on the current situation, data is collected non-systematically and used differently in various public institutions and administrative territories. One of the reasons that led to this situation is the fact that there is no single data source available to everyone. This issue would be fundamentally changed by the Child Health Monitoring Information System, which would ensure uniform data content and quality for all concerned institutions. Another prevailing issue in health monitoring is one-dimensional data sources which often provide information that raises more questions instead of providing answers. When linking various data sources on child health in Lithuania and factors that influence it, it is possible to identify current child health novelties faster and more accurately. The latter objectives and their implementation practice was also compared to foreign countries, and the good practice of other countries, as well as solutions positively evaluated in the international context were considered when improving the developed system model.

And finally, the developed model of the Child Health Monitoring Information System was presented, which provides the main and supplementary child health data sources, the calculated indicators and the information system opportunities related to data visualization and presentation. One of the main tasks of the information system was to create a favourable environment for all user groups, regardless of whether unprocessed population-based data is received, or an interpretation of the already calculated indicators is necessary. It will be easier to understand and apply statistical information in the future, without limiting access to a comprehensive database, and in order to name relevant issues and find reasonable solutions.

Project manager Šarūnas Alasauskas

Reports read during the conference (available only in lithuanian):

Support of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism for the welfare of the health of children and youth
Gytė Sirgedienė, the Ministry of Health (download)

Presentation of the Child Health Monitoring Information System (hereinafter referred to as CHM IS) project
Šarūnas Alasauskas, the Institute of Hygiene (download)

Children and youth health care novelties
Dr. Rita Sketerskienė, the Ministry of Health (download)

Child health monitoring: current situation and perspectives after the implementation of CHM IS
Dr. Romualdas Gurevičius, the Institute of Hygiene (download)

Child health checks and monitoring in foreign countries
Nadia Lipunova, the Institute of Hygiene (download)

Presentation of the CHM IS model
Dr. Aušra Želvienė (download)

Presentation of the CHM IS educational methodological manual
Olga Gražulienė, the Institute of Hygiene (download)

CHM IS data security aspects
Elena Mikalajūnienė, the Institute of Hygiene (download)

The use of monitoring data for the improvement of children's health
Daiva Žeromskienė, the Health Education and Disease Prevention Centre (download)

Publication "Methodological manual for the child health monitoring information system" (download)