Citation, abstract, conclusion and comments from me below.
CITATION: Bull World Health Organ. 2025 Dec 2;104(2):103–111. doi: 10.2471/BLT.25.294184
Changes needed in health information systems to support an ageing population
Ana Mendez-Lopez, Kidong Park, Roland D Hensman
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12834352/
ABSTRACT
Health information systems are essential for evidence-based decision-making and must transform to support healthy ageing in rapidly ageing societies. This change requires strengthening of the structures and processes that enable the collection, integration, analysis and use of comprehensive, integrated and person-centred information in health, social and long-term care sectors. Interoperability and governance mechanisms are important to link data and services and ensure coordinated and continuous care for older adults. Health information systems should incorporate ageing-relevant areas such as functional ability, well-being, end-of-life preferences, living environments, informal and formal caregiving, and social determinants of health. Advanced analytics and tools to support decision-making can provide actionable insights to improve the quality of care, evaluate progress and inform the design of age-friendly policies and services. Equally, systems must be user-centred and accessible, adapted to varying levels of digital literacy, and co-designed with older adults and communities. Engaging older adults and communities in the design of health information systems can enhance relevance, equity, trust and uptake. Such systems can support older adults to actively manage their health. Finally, robust ethical and legal frameworks are essential to guide the responsible design, implementation and use of health information systems. These frameworks should safeguard privacy and uphold dignity, particularly concerning sensitive data, informed consent and decision-making capacity in later life.
CONCLUSION
Health information systems need to be adapted to include healthy ageing. Countries should prioritize: (i) strengthening governance and interoperability across health, long-term care and social services to enable integrated care and coordinated support for older adults; (ii) adopting minimum ageing-relevant data sets, shared identifiers and analytic capabilities to ensure person-centred continuity of care; (iii) investing in workforce capacity for ageing-responsive health and social care, and enhancing digital literacy among providers and older adults; (iv) ensuring user-centred design and accessibility that reflect the needs, capacities and digital literacy of older adults, and promoting use of health information systems; (v) embedding ethical and privacy safeguards that uphold dignity and consent; and (vi) advancing stepwise, sustainably financed reforms that build on existing systems and capacity. Collectively, these actions can accelerate the transformation of health information systems into systems that deliver integrated, person-centred care that supports healthy ageing for all.
COMMENTS (NPW):
1. WHO defines 'health information system' as 'a complex, multilevel system, aimed at producing health intelligence to inform decision-making, and encompassing data collection, analysis, health reporting, knowledge management and governance'. On HIFA we look especially at knowledge translation: how evidence from robust research is translated into policy and practice. HIFA's depiction of the global evidence ecosystem is described here: https://www.hifa.org/about-hifa The emphasis is on actionable generic information that guides evidence-informed decision making. Thanks to HIFA member Richard Fitton, HIFA also embraces electronic medical records as part of the 'information that every person needs to protect their own health and the health of others', and the combination of clinical decision support tools with EMRs, and more recently artificial intelligence, creates a 'multilevel system' where generic information is but one component.
2. The authors call for countries to prioritise 'user-centred design and accessibility that reflect the needs, capacities and digital literacy of older adults'. I invite HIFA members to comment further on this. If you are a health professional, or a librarian/information professional, what are your observations of the needs of older adults? How might these needs be prioritised and met?
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org