This community innovation has been accepted at the 2026 DHIS2 Annual Conference as a digital poster.
Individual Child Health Tracking with DHIS2
Many child health programs rely on paper-based records or aggregated monthly reporting, limiting the ability to track individual children, ensure continuity of care, and identify risks early. In Sri Lanka, routine child health information is primarily captured in aggregate formats, constraining personalized interventions and detailed surveillance. To address this gap, the Ministry of Health is planning a national transition to individual-level digital tracking using the DHIS2 Tracker module. A phased roadmap has been developed covering assessment, system design, infrastructure strengthening, piloting, and gradual scale-up. The system will capture child registration, immunization, growth monitoring, nutrition, and follow-up visits as program stages, creating longitudinal digital records for each child. Mobile-friendly interfaces will be designed for Public Health Midwives, supported by role-based access control, program rules, validations, and dashboards at facility, district, and national levels. Integration with existing systems and FHIR-based interoperability will enable seamless data exchange, while capacity building and technical support will be embedded throughout implementation. The transition is expected to improve data completeness, timeliness, and accuracy compared to aggregated reporting, allowing health workers to monitor each child’s history across visits and identify missed vaccinations, growth concerns, and service gaps earlier. Real-time dashboards will strengthen supervision, resource allocation, and evidence-based decision-making. This initiative is anticipated to provide a scalable, low-cost pathway for transforming fragmented reporting into continuous, person-centered surveillance and offers a practical, replicable model for countries seeking to strengthen child health systems through individual-level digital data.
Primary Author: Priyanga Senanayaka
Keywords:
DHIS2, Tracker, child health, individual-level data, longitudinal records, digital health transformation, maternal and child health, immunization tracking, growth monitoring
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