Guide to Monitoring and Evaluating Health Information Products and Services

Guide to Monitoring and Evaluating Health Information Products and Services

Because resources available to improve global health are limited, it is becoming increasingly important for those who produce and disseminate health-related information and services to gauge the impact of their work. Indeed, information programs are often asked to demonstrate how their products and services “make a difference.” However, while there are a variety of published M&E guidelines for other health program components (e.g., quality, logistics, management) and for health activities directed at specific populations (e.g., youth, men), few guidelines pertain specifically to assessing information products and services.

Consequently, the Guide to Monitoring and Evaluating Health Information Products and Services was produced to: 

  1. provide a core list of indicators to measure the reach, usefulness, use, and impact of information services and products in a consistent way;
  2. improve monitoring and evaluation by simplifying the selection and application of indicators; and
  3. define, standardize, and categorize indicators so as to promote agreement on their appropriate application and interpretation.

The Guide offers guidance and 29 indicators to measure how information products and services contribute to improving health programs. The Guide includes the “Conceptual Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Health Information Products and Services” (see p. 5), which illustrates how improving the reach and usefulness of information products and services facilitates and increases their use—which in turn enhances public health policy and practice. Together, the elements in the Guide can help health professionals to better evaluate the contribution of their knowledge management work to crucial health outcomes.

As of December 2017, this guide was cited in the Global Health Knowledge Collaborative’s Knowledge Management Indicator Library, a comprehensive resource with a searchable database of common indicators for people who manage, share, and measure global health knowledge.