We spend so much time looking at aggregate indicators that sometimes we forget:

- Data comes from individual people.

It is now becoming more necessary and feasible to:

 -  record information about individual people.

 - share information at all levels (from individual patient care to management to planning to monitoring)

HIS stack now includes individual patient records in addition to community, facility, district, and national systems.

Traditionally, public health informatics has included only aggregate indicators such as those routinely collected from facilities on attendance, services, diseases.

However, chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, MDR TB, as well as diabetes, hypertension have made it essential to include individual medical records in health informatics.