Do you have data you can trust?
In 1847 Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis first proposed a change in the medical field that would later have others refer to him as the ‘Saviour of Mothers’. He theorised that the mortality rate of mothers during child birth would be significantly reduced if only the doctors washed their hands during child birth.
As simple and as valuable as this change may seem today, this suggestion was not taken up instantly by the medical practitioners then. This change conflicted with established scientific and medical opinions of his time and because he could offer no acceptable scientific data to prove it, all his suggestions were put down regardless of the numerous publications he made.
The assumptions and proof he had were simply not enough to change people’s minds and behaviour.
It took him more than two decades to convince doctors that washing their hands could save the lives of mothers during child birth. In fact, he did not even manage to do it in his lifetime, even though he was right.
It was only after Louis Pasteur proved the germ theory, and when it was later tested by Joseph Lister (with great success) that Ignaz Semmelweis hypothesis was confirmed and taken up in the medical field.
The lesson we learned from this was that:
‘When there is a gap in the evidence , no one will trust what you are saying and because of that gap no one would be able to make better decisions.’
That lesson learned from the past is true even in our time.
This is one of the reasons Shifo deeply cares about getting reliable data, which can show what works and what does not work in order to improve health outcomes.
Despite the challenges that come to ensure quality data and evidence is available in countries with high burden of maternal and child mortality and morbidity, we believe we have found a timely, effective, and efficient way of managing data. We call this solution Smart Paper Technology (SPT) which was developed to ensure that reliable data is used for better decision-making to achieve better health outcomes.
When key actors know that the data is reliable they will trust that data and make better decisions for the overall benefit of the people.
This can be seen in the results that have been yielded over the past years.
For example, in The Gambia, SPT has been implemented and rigorously evaluated in two regions in The Gambia- Western Region 1 and Western Region 2.
Successful evaluation results showed the improvements that SPT has brought to the health system in The Gambia. The evaluation, based on WHO’s data quality review toolkit, indicated that the data completeness, timeliness, internal and external consistency is now at 100%; the incidence of recording errors were at 2%, and the data accuracy was at 98% in those two regions.
Health workers can now receive their accurate key performance indicators and develop strategies to improve in the underperforming areas. Decision makers and planners at regional and national levels can now better review the performance of each health facility/area using the integrated dashboard and reports, which are specifically developed to help them see the insights based on the data and make proper actions.
The insights help decision makers identify and close the gaps in all health service delivery points.
We know one size doesn’t fit all, that is why we keep on improving our solution and keep on making it better for each region and country we work in.
If everyone can have access to data they can trust, then together we can close the gaps and reach ‘a day when no child dies or suffers from preventable dieses’.
What are your thoughts on this? Leave a comment and share them in the section below. If you have any suggestions or want to contact us and find out more about Shifo, email us at changetheworld@shifo.org .
