Electronic health information systems are an important component of high-quality primary health care (PHC) in Kenya: they streamline reporting and bi-directional referrals, reduce data reporting errors, and provide better care coordination and decision-making for health care providers, community health promoters (CHPs), and the communities they serve.
Since 2020, the Government of Kenya has been rolling out the electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS), a platform that CHPs use to report on services provided. eCHIS, which is the main component of Kenya’s national community health digitization strategy 2020–2025, is interoperable with the Kenya Health Information System, the platform for routine health service reporting. It aims to strengthen community health data management by CHPs and their community health assistant (CHA) supervisors at community health units (CHUs), the basic health service-delivery structures linked to primary health care facilities (either a dispensary or a health center).
With funding from the Astellas Global Health Foundation (AGHF), PATH and the Nyamira County government are working together to complement national government efforts to bring eCHIS to scale and strengthen CHP capacity toward digital health adoption. Through AGHF support, PATH addressed inventory gaps by procuring an additional 207 tablets and smartphones to better facilitate eCHIS reporting by CHUs in Nyamira County. Access to tablets and smartphones is crucial to Kenya’s broader efforts to digitize community health reporting through the eCHIS platform.
PATH also supported a two-day training in May 2025 in which 723 CHPs (52 percent of all CHPs in Nyamira County) were trained on eCHIS Version 3, with a focus on HIV and TB indicator reporting. This training allowed CHPs to improve the documentation of their efforts in eCHIS and connect their efforts to the wider network of PHC service provision in Kenya.
His Excellency Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo (left) during the distribution event for project-procured tablets with community health team representatives. Photo: PATH.
However, providing devices and training to community health workers is just the beginning. What does it take to support smooth day-to-day eCHIS use for CHPs in Nyamira County?
Below, we take a “behind-the-scenes” look at two new project-supported initiatives delivering the back-end support for eCHIS scale-up, which are providing the infrastructure for digital health sustainability beyond the project lifetime.
Providing real-time IT support for eCHIS users
CHPs sometimes encounter issues while using eCHIS. These range from data synchronization and systems errors to credential issues and system downtime. Previously, the process to get technical support was challenging: CHPs would use telephone calls and screenshots to report issues to CHAs, and depending on complexity, the issues would escalate to the county or even national level for IT support.
Issues could take weeks to resolve.
Under the AGHF-funded project, PATH supported the establishment of eCHIS help desks in each of Nyamira County’s five subcounties to provide IT support services and troubleshoot user issues in real time. To use the help desks, CHPs simply send a text on the popular WhatsApp platform describing their issue. Local help desk staff based in each subcounty, comprised of IT officers, local health managers, and other CHPs, then respond quickly to address issues as they arise.
Since the launch of the eCHIS help desks in November 2024 through August 2025, 259 issues have been reported to the help desks and 253 (98 percent) have been resolved. The average resolution turnaround time has been reduced from 14 days to just two!
PATH also supported the county to develop a monthly issue log tracker that is populated by subcounty focal persons and tracks the status of issues reported. This tracker serves many purposes.
First, it enables Nyamira County to provide real-time feedback to Kenya’s national eCHIS support team, thereby giving visibility to common eCHIS issues that affect users across Kenya.
Additionally, the data collected through this tracker will inform upcoming help desk iterations that will include machine learning capabilities, which can assess common user issues and how they were responded to. In the future, the use of machine learning will further hone the efficiency of the help desks, enabling automatic replies for common issues and reducing both turnaround times and human resource requirements.
Through local IT support and continuous improvement, the eCHIS help desks provide a model for fast, decentralized, and cost-effective eCHIS support that is facilitating the acceleration of digital health adoption.
Strengthening systems to manage electronic data reporting device inventory
Tracking and managing Nyamira County’s inventory of electronic data reporting devices, including smartphones and tablets, is essential to ensure that devices are readily available to community health staff for their work. PATH supported an inventory stock-taking exercise and updated the inventory management system with the serial numbers and other details of all county-owned phones and tablets. This will help the county actively track and manage devices, especially during CHP onboarding and offboarding. The PATH team worked with the Nyamira County Department of Health to perform an overall assessment of the existing inventory management system and explore how the system’s functionalities could be improved.
As a result of this assessment, PATH will support the development of a web-based device management and tracking system to replace and update the current paper-based systems. This system will be linked with the county community health staff and training databases. Nyamira County will cover the annual subscription for this new system, manage user rights, and ensure that the system is regularly updated, as the project team continues to provide ongoing technical support for the system.
A CHP using an eCHIS-enabled device to document services provided during a household visit. Photo: PATH.
Accelerating digital health adoption
PATH’s AGHF-supported work, implemented hand-in-hand with Nyamira County partners, is providing new models to develop the necessary platforms and systems to digitally empower CHPs. Initiatives like the eCHIS help desks have received recognition at national and international forums, including the 2025 International Conference on Primary Health Care.
Going forward, PATH will continue to support additional digital health initiatives, including eCHIS mentorship and coaching, data quality audits, and improved functionality of web-based databases, all with the goal of accelerating digital health adoption to strengthen community-level PHC across Kenya.
