ABSTRACT
Introduction Electronic health information systems (HISs) are believed to improve access to health information. The District Health Information System Version 2 (DHIS2) is used widely in developing countries. While numerous successful cases highlighting the introduction of DHIS in facility-based settings have been reported, it remains unclear how similarly effective results can be obtained in developing countries. Methods We conducted a literature review to clarify the achievements and challenges regarding the use of DHIS2, and extracted 62 papers from PubMed and Google Scholar using the search term ‘District Health Information Software System’. Eleven papers that described the process of introducing DHIS2 were selected for analysis.Results We categorized the achievements into two groups: ‘Improvement of the reporting system’ and ‘Human resources development’. The challenges were categorized into eight groups, of which most commonly reported were human resources-related issues, followed by system complexity and data collection inadequacy. Conclusions The introduction of DHIS2 contributed to the improvement of the timeliness and completeness of data reporting, as well as human resources development, while utilization of data should be further strengthened. The most common challenges reported consisted of human resources-related issues. The HISs should be simple and easy to understand, even for individuals with low computer literacy.