MINISTRY of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) Health Information System officers have successfully completed a two-day training on the World Health Organization analysis tool, Analyzing Mortality and Causes of Death 3 (ANACoD3), with the objective to build in-country capacity to analyze the Causes of Death Data and translate data to information that can be used for policy and decision-making.
The training was facilitated by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Foundation Technical Advisor Dr Hafizur Chowhury and was supported by the CDC Foundation through the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative (D4H).
MHMS, HIS and CRVS Project Officer, Mr. Rodley Ruskin said mortality statistics are very important to population health as they provide fundamental information about the health status, disease etiology, trend, and pattern of disease in different populations.
“The cause of death information is crucial for policy and decision-making and can be used to evaluate the impact of health interventions. thus, the participants were trained on the World Health Organization analysis tool, namely ANACoD3”, explained Mr. Ruskin.
The tool (ANACoD3) helps the user to perform a comprehensive and systematic analysis of mortality and cause of death data.
“The ANACoD3 generates the top 20 leading causes of death by age and sex for the country. The leading cause of deaths is very important for health policy, planning, and operation,” said Mr. Ruskin.
Meanwhile, he added the training is vital for the participants and the MHMS because the statistics generated from ANACoD3 tool provides essential information for policy maker and decision makers.
Improving and strengthening health information systems as aligned to the National Health Strategic Plan 2022-2031 is critical in the overall scheme of health systems strengthening. With the improvement and strengthening of the Health Information system, this will enable the Ministry to identify problems and needs, make evidence-based decisions on health policy and allocate scarce resources appropriately.
