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The Australian Development Gateway (ADG) strives to support members of the development community in their efforts to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region. The site has been created with participation from members of government, private, academia and non-government organisations. User feedback mechanisms have been incorporated to guide future directions of the site. The site is optimised for low bandwidth access to enable the widest participation throughout the Asia Pacific region.

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Health information systems

The challenge of translating health information systems (pdf 280kb)

This paper addresses the question of using health information systems software in different contexts, using a case study of a South African system and the subsequent transferal to Mozambique.

It looks at five key challenges to transferring health information systems between countries:
- Language rules and lack of equivalent terms from one language to another
- Length of strings
- Different naming conventions
- Different organisational structures
- Inadequate knowledge
 
From the case study experience, lessons are documented to inform other efforts to translate health information systems from one country to another.

 

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