Please join us at Change this week - Grégoire Lurton <http://www.healthdata.org/about/gr%C3%A9goire-lurton>from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) will be presenting current research on Health Management Information Systems. What: Grégoire Lurton: Improving the usability and usage of routine Health Systems data in Developing Countries. When: Tuesday, Oct 28 at 12pm Where: The Allen Center, CSE 203 *Abstract:* Emphasizing the importance of Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) as well as their overall weak performance in providing reliable data is becoming a stencil of the discussions on health systems in developing countries. Many efforts have been made to improve data collection in these settings. This talk presents ongoing reflections on ways to improve HMIS data usage, focusing on data management and data analysis innovations. Based on current research at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and at CSE’s Data Science Incubator, we present two examples of HMIS data leveraging. A first example will present how metadata from Excel spreadsheets have been used to compile and standardize batches of reports from Kenyan HMIS. A second example shows how data from Open Street Map can be matched with HMIS data from Nigeria to estimate geo-localization of health services. Finally, we will offer preliminary reflections on how the increasing availability of structured HMIS data changes the way information and decision making should be linked. Using Alain Desrosières’ typology of the use of statistics for policy making, we will propose the possibility of a Learning State as being most adapted to the data available through HMIS. *About the speaker:* Grégoire Lurton is a second year PhD Student in Global Health at UW, and Research Associate at IHME. His research explores how data from in African countries’ HMIS can be used to inform policy making. Grégoire graduated from the French National School of Statistics and Economic Administration and from Sciences-Po Paris. He spent 5 years in West Africa, working with NGO Solthis, building Health Information Systems for national HIV programs in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Niger and Mali.