BackgroundThe Global Roadmap for Health Measurement and Accountability sees integrated systems for health information as key to obtaining seamless, sustainable, and secure information exchanges at all levels of health systems. The Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health aims to achieve a continuum of quality of care with effective coverage of interventions. The WHO and World Bank recommend that countries focus on intervention coverage to monitor programs and progress for universal health coverage. Electronic health registries - eRegistries - represent integrated systems that secure a triple return on investments: First, effective single data collection for health workers to seamlessly follow individuals along the continuum of care and across disconnected cadres of care providers. Second, real-time public health surveillance and monitoring of intervention coverage, and third, feedback of information to individuals, care providers and the public for transparent accountability. This series on eRegistries presents frameworks and tools to facilitate the development and secure operation of eRegistries for maternal and child health.MethodsIn this first paper of the eRegistries Series we have used WHO frameworks and taxonomy to map how eRegistries can support commonly used electronic and mobile applications to alleviate health systems constraints in maternal and child health. A web-based survey of public health officials in 64 low- and middle-income countries, and a systematic search of literature from 2005–2015, aimed to assess country capacities by the current status, quality and use of data in reproductive health registries.ResultseRegistries can offer support for the 12 most commonly used electronic and mobile applications for health. Countries are implementing health registries in various forms, the majority in transition from paper-based data collection to electronic systems, but very few have eRegistries that can act as an integrating backbone for health information. More mature country capacity reflected by published health registry based research is emerging in settings reaching regional or national scale, increasingly with electronic solutions. 66 scientific publications were identified based on 32 registry systems in 23 countries over a period of 10 years; this reflects a challenging experience and capacity gap for delivering sustainable high quality registries.ConclusionsRegistries are being developed and used in many high burden countries, but their potential benefits are far from realized as few countries have fully transitioned from paper-based health information to integrated electronic backbone systems. Free tools and frameworks exist to facilitate progress in health information for women and children.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12884-016-0801-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background. During the last century, national public health institutes (NPHIs) emerged to address enduring and emergency public health challenges. Outbreaks have often compelled countries to establish NPHIs. Likewise, the Covid-19 pandemic may inspire countries to create or strengthen NPHIs. Despite their historic legacies and contributions to public health, no review of NPHI literature has been published to date. The aim of this scoping review is to provide an overview of the NPHI literature published since 2000 and map characteristics of articles including format, authorship, geographic focus, methods, language, and focal topic. We also investigate whether the NPHI literature addresses public health capacity building domains. Finally, the study identifies gaps and areas for future research. Methods. The scoping review was guided the Arksey and O’Malley methodological framework and utilized the PRISMA-ScR checklist. The search was conducted in Medline OVID and Scopus databases. Data extraction involved mapping article characteristics and reviewing public health capacity building framework domains. Results. The search yielded 5731 records. A total of 43 articles met the study eligibility criteria. Articles were published in English, Spanish, French and Russian including diverse perspectives and experiences emanating from more than 20 countries in Africa, Europe, North America and South America. Most articles were formatted as commentaries. Only three reported methods or collected primary data. Articles topics included organizational structure, networks, research, funding, and governance. Conclusion. Findings reveal a longstanding international interest in leveraging NPHIs to address complex public health challenges. Lack of studies reporting methods reveals the need for future research to utilize quantitative and qualitative methods. The NPHI literature addresses topics concerning public health capacity building which underscores NPHIs’ ability to tackle global and national public health threats. Many articles in this review recommend investment in NPHIs as a strategy to respond to crises and strengthen countries’ public health systems.

During the last century, national public health institutes emerged to address enduring and emergency public health challenges. Previous outbreaks often compelled countries to establish national institutes of public health. Despite historic legacies and contributions to public health, no review of this literature has been published. The aim of this scoping review is to provide an overview of this literature and map characteristics including format, authorship, geographic focus, methods, language, focal topic and public health capacity building domains. The scoping review was guided the Arksey and O'Malley methodological framework and utilised the PRISMA-ScR checklist. A systematic search of Medline OVID and Scopus databases yielded 5731 records. In total, 43 articles met the eligibility criteria. Articles were published in English, Spanish, French and Russian and included perspectives from over 20 countries in Africa, Europe, North America and South America. Three reported methods or collected primary data. Findings reveal a longstanding international interest in leveraging national institutes to address complex public health challenges. Lack of studies reporting methods reveals the need for future research utilising robust methodology. Several articles recommend investment in national public health institutes as a strategy to respond to crises and strengthen countries' public health systems.