The following standards and guidelines are being used for designing the eHMIS application:

• The Health Management Information System of Uganda, Ministry of Health Uganda, June 2005:

• The HL7 EHR DSTU (Health Level 7, Electronic Health Records, Draft Standard for Trial Use, July 2004

• The HL7 EHR System Functional Module: A major development towards consensus on Electronic Health Records Fuctionality.

• The Reproductive Health Indicators of World Health Organization.

Background:
Because the design of the eHMIS application started in Uganda, the HMIS of Uganda is being used as the basis for its design within the context of routine reporting.

The reporting module of eHMIS is capable of collating reports from the health facility level for importation to District Health Office and Ministry of Health databases for further analysis. At the end of its development, the eHMIS application will be HMIS compliant.

HL7 standards have been chosen to ensure that the application conforms to international standards with regard to design, components and functionalities.

The reproductive health indicators of World Health Organization are not really a standard, but rather a guideline that is informing the reporting module of eHMIS on the reports that must be generated with regard to fighting maternal mortality. The background to this is the fact that the eHMIS application development started in the Mother and Child Health (MCH) department of Tororo District Hospital in Uganda, as a research project, identifying ways in which electronic health record systems can be used to improve on the quality of routine reporting, thus enhace decison making that could contribute to a reduction of maternal mortality.