Principles and core functions of integrated child health information systems.

Infants undergo a series of preventive and therapeutic health interventions and activities. Typically- each activity includes collection and submission of data to a dedicated information system. Subsequently- health care providers- families- and health programs must query each information system to determine the child's status in a given area. Efforts are underway to integrate information in these separate information systems. This requires specifying the core functions that integrated information systems must perform.