Investing in health information management: The right people, in the right place, at the right time.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the process adopted to review the academic curriculum for training health information management professionals in Nigeria.


BACKGROUND
Health information management professionals are responsible for managing patients' health service records and hospital information systems across health facilities in Nigeria. An assessment found many are inadequately skilled in information and communications technology (ICT) skills believed to be needed for them to play leadership roles in hospital information systems and function effectively. This was traced to a dearth of relevant ICT courses in their academic training curriculum.


METHODS
A review of the curriculum for training health information management professionals was instituted following an agreed need to address these issues.


CONCLUSIONS
Health records management is evolving across the world including the developing countries. This advancement requires evolution of training programs to meet the increasing application of ICT in this sector.


CONCLUSIONS
After several sessions, a new curriculum that addresses all the identified educational deficiencies has been developed. It is believed that this step will help improve the quality of training programs.
Viable Knowledge Masters, Nigeria MEASURE Evaluation/John Snow Inc., Nigeria Demography and Population Studies Program, Schools of Public Health and Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa sesmak@gmail.com.
Olusesan
O
Ayodeji Makinde
Health Records Officers Registration Board of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria.
Mohammed Ibrahim
MI
Mami
Health Records Officers Registration Board of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria Department of Library, Archives and Information Management, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Benson Macaulay
BM
Oweghoro
MEASURE Evaluation/ John Snow Inc. Arlington, USA.
Kolawole Azeez
KA
Oyediran
MEASURE Evaluation/ John Snow Inc. Arlington, USA.
Stephanie
S
Mullen
D003479:Curriculum; D019451:Information Management; D008490:Medical Informatics; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care
curriculum; education; health care; health information management; health information systems; human resources; quality assurance