Background The use of digital technology in healthcare promises to improve quality of care and reduce costs over time. This promise will be difficult to attain without interoperability: facilitating seamless health information exchange between the deployed digital health information systems (HIS). Objective To determine the maturity readiness of the interoperability capacity of Kenya’s HIS. Methods We used the HIS Interoperability Maturity Toolkit, developed by MEASURE Evaluation and the Health Data Collaborative’s Digital Health and Interoperability Working Group. The assessment was undertaken by eHealth stakeholder representatives primarily from the Ministry of Health’s Digital Health Technical Working Group. The toolkit focused on three major domains: leadership and governance, human resources and technology. Results Most domains are at the lowest two levels of maturity: nascent or emerging. At the nascent level, HIS activities happen by chance or represent isolated, ad hoc efforts. An emerging maturity level characterises a system with defined HIS processes and structures. However, such processes are not systematically documented and lack ongoing monitoring mechanisms. Conclusion None of the domains had a maturity level greater than level 2 (emerging). The subdomains of governance structures for HIS, defined national enterprise architecture for HIS, defined technical standards for data exchange, nationwide communication network infrastructure, and capacity for operations and maintenance of hardware attained higher maturity levels. These findings are similar to those from interoperability maturity assessments done in Ghana and Uganda.

Job Nyangena

Rohini Rajgopal

Elizabeth Adhiambo Ombech

Enock Oloo

Humphrey Luchetu

Sam Wambugu

Onesmus Kamau

Charles Nzioka

Samson Gwer

Moses Ndiritu Ndirangu

BMJ Health & Care Informatics

BMJ Health and Care Informatics

Maturity assessment of Kenya’s health information system interoperability readiness

The maturity readiness of the interoperability capacity of Kenya's HIS is found to be at the lowest two levels of maturity: nascent or emerging, similar to those from interoperability maturity assessments done in Ghana and Uganda.

Maturity assessment of Kenya’s health information system interoperability readiness

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Journal Info

Category	Quartile
MEDICAL INFORMATICS	2