INTRODUCTION

Health Information Systems (HIS) are critical to decisionmaking across the health sector. Accurate reliable information available in a timely fashion enables prioritizing or health problems, health policy formulation, governance, research, human resource management and financing. The growing importance of cost analyses and cost-effectiveness analyses argues for better HIS in the Caribbean (1–3). In this issue of the Journal, the paper by Cunningham-Myrie on hospital-based information systems in four countries draws attention to existing deficiencies and to the broader matter of HIS.