From Pilot to Scale: Scaling Community Health Information Systems as Digital Public Infrastructure

Mission and objectives

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As countries move beyond fragmented digital health pilots toward systemic integration, Community Health Information Systems (CHIS) are emerging as a foundational layer of national Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). While many CHIS initiatives rely on open-source technologies and align with Digital Public Goods (DPGs), far fewer address the governance, financing, institutional capacity, and workforce realities required to generate sustained public value.

This interactive workshop examines how CHIS can be designed, deployed, governed, and scaled as durable public infrastructure embedded within routine government health systems rather than as time-bound projects.

Grounded in a real-world government-led scale-up of a Community Health Nurse led CHIS, the session provides practical frameworks and transferable insights applicable across diverse country contexts.

The workshop aims to shift the conversation from technology deployment to infrastructure stewardship positioning CHIS not as a standalone tool, but as long-term public health intervention requiring governance, financing, and institutional alignment.

Participants will explore how governments and partners can:

• Transition from project-based digital health models to a more holistic community based care.
• Align CHIS with DPGs and DPI principles
• Strengthen public ownership and accountability mechanisms
• Plan for lifecycle sustainability beyond pilot funding
• Integrate frontline workforce realities into digital system architecture

Intended Audience and Expected Participants

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• Digital public health researchers and implementation scientists
• Policymakers and government officials
• Community health practitioners
• Donors and development partners
• Technologists and digital system architects
• Graduate students and emerging leaders

Expected participation:
30-50 participants with structured interaction throughout.

Format and schedule

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The 90-minute session combines:

• A concise framing presentation (sets the context, explains the key problem, introduces core concepts)
• Facilitated small-group exercises (work through a guided task, use a structured framework or set of questions, discuss real trade-offs or scenarios)
• Structured plenary dialogue (everyone comes back together as one group, each table shares key insights, facilitator asks guiding questions to deepen the discussion)
• Collective synthesis of actionable design principles (group extracts practical lessons, facilitator identifies clear takeaways and summarize concrete principles participants can apply).

Participants will work collaboratively to generate practical guidance for scaling CHIS as resilient, government-owned digital infrastructure.

Speakers

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