Development of a Global Health Technology Information System

Medical devices that are of good quality, safe, and compatible with the settings they are used in are an essential component in effective and efficient healthcare services. However, the appropriate selection and making available of medical devices is a major challenge for healthcare institutions from developed and developing countries alike where the main obstacle is the serious lack of reliable, up-to-date, and impartial information.

The need for medical device lists and guidelines to be used as tools to remedy this lack was stated by the WHA resolution 60.29 on health technologies. In order to answer to this need, WHO is developing a global health technology information system (GHTIS) to provide the information required to enable the effective use of resources through proper planning, assessment, acquisition, and management. The GHITS is going to be publically available, evidence based and free of charge.

The system consists of three main modules: The key module is the aggregation of information about medical devices in a database. As established by collected use-cases, information about types and names, technical specifications, environmental requirements, cost as well as information on assessment and regulations can be incorporated. The second module is a database of clinical procedures. The third module consists of types of units at healthcare facilities where the devices are required. The secondary phase will be the linkage between these modules: Only by clearly indicating for each medical device the clinical procedures and healthcare facilities where it is used for different levels of care, the information system would answer to a broad spectrum of queries related to healthcare services and medical devices in particular.

As of October 2011, the conceptual stage is completed. The analysis and extraction of data from different sources as well as the generation of additional information in cooperation with collaboration partners is under way.