Data Tools & Resources

This sub-section builds off the previous section on sources of MNH data and focuses on how stakeholders can collect, use, and interpret data to continue advancing MNH progress. Resources include toolkits, manuals, and guidance that provide stakeholders with the necessary information to strengthen monitoring systems and implement responsive action. This sub-section also includes supplemental resources for additional learning and discussion. 

Health Management Information Systems (HMIS)

Country health management information systems (HMIS) are critical tools for tracking changes in MNH levels and coverage. A routine HMIS is a data collection system specifically designed to capture and provide essential real-time data to support planning, management, and decision making at the local, regional and national levels. The following resources catalog specific MNH indicators that are collected in country HMIS and provide guidance on how stakeholders can glean insights from HMIS data in country. 

Surveys & Assessments

In addition to country HMIS, there are multiple surveys and assessments used to measure progress in MNH at various levels of the healthcare system. The following tools provide a blueprint for measuring levels and trends ranging from mortality to experience of care. 

Household

Experience of Care Metrics

There is no single measure that can capture “person-centered care” in its entirety; rather, person-centered care encompasses many elements. Person-centered care incorporates people’s experience of care (e.g. did a person feel respected during her antenatal care visit?) and the normative standards (e.g. was a woman offered the option to have a labor and birth companion of her choice?). Experience of care spans a continuum that includes outright mistreatment on one end and highly person-centered care on the other end.  It is important that measures are able to capture this continuum and to capture both positive and negative care.

Using the Data

Once the data is collected, stakeholders need to know how to use the information. A key intervention for improving maternal, perinatal and neonatal survival is understanding the number and causes of deaths. The following resources provide guidance on how to analyze, interpret, and respond to collected data to inform responsive health programming. 

MPDSR

According to the WHO, maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response (MPDSR) is defined as an essential quality improvement intervention which permits the identification, notification, quantification and determination of causes and avoidability of maternal and neonatal deaths and stillbirth with the goal of orienting the measures necessary for their prevention. Below is a selection of resources that can serve as a toolkit for adoption and implementation of MPDSR.

Additional Learning

This section offers additional information related to partners, forums, or resources for continued learning and discussion about measuring progress in the MNH space.