National Data Repositories
National Data Repositories (NDRs) serve as centralised, integrated datasets that bring together data from multiple sources within the health sector. Unlike simple data warehouses, an NDR is a carefully curated system that incorporates automated data cleaning, governance, linkage, processing, and analysis to provide actionable insights for decision-making.
Why NDRs Matter
NDRs enable governments, health agencies, and policymakers to:
-
Improve Data Integration: Linking data from various systems, such as electronic medical records (EMRs), surveillance data, supply chains, and laboratory results.
-
Enhance Decision-Making: Supporting evidence-based policymaking by providing clean, consolidated data.
-
Monitor Epidemics & Disease Control: Facilitating real-time tracking of HIV epidemic control, procurement efficiency, and disease outbreak detection.
-
Strengthen Data Governance & Security: Ensuring compliance with privacy regulations, access control, and governance structures.
Key Features of a National Data Repository
-
Automated ETL Pipelines – Continuous extraction, transformation, and loading of data from multiple systems.
-
Standardised Data Linkage – Unifying diverse datasets using standardised identifiers (e.g., facility codes, patient IDs).
-
Scalable Architecture – Built on SQL databases, cloud platforms, and data lakes to handle large-scale data processing.
-
Flexible Data Visualisation – Supports PowerBI, Superset, and other business intelligence tools for advanced analytics.
-
Interoperability – Designed to integrate with DHIS2, OpenMRS, HAPI FHIR, and other health information systems.
Real-World Impact
Through the Informatics Hub, NDRs have been successfully implemented in:
-
Uganda, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, and Jamaica – Improving national health data accessibility and coordination.
-
Case-Based Surveillance – Enabling patient-level monitoring to track treatment outcomes and improve public health responses.
-
HIV & Epidemic Control Programs – Providing data-driven insights to optimise resource allocation and program effectiveness.