Standards for Public Health Information Services

Overview

The Public Health Information standards (PHIS) function of activated health clusters (HC) has, to date, broadly been understood to encompass a range of activities and products, from simple, administrative information tasks such as maintenance of a list of HC partners, to far more technically complex activities such as the implementation and analysis of field surveys or epidemic surveillance. Information needs arise throughout the six key elements of the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (emergency response and preparedness, needs assessment and analysis; strategic response planning; resource mobilization; implementation and monitoring; and operational review and evaluation). As such, the need for a specific cluster coordination role specialized in delivering PHIS, referred to as an Information Management Officer (IMO) or a Public Health Information Services Officer (PHISO), has been increasingly recognized. The term IMO will be used throughout this document.