Primary Health Care Information System Research Articles

Estimation of prevalence of chronic Chagas disease in Brazilian municipalitiesEstimación de la prevalencia de la enfermedad de Chagas crónica en los municipios brasileños

The objective of this study is to estimate the prevalence of chronic Chagas disease (CCD) in Brazil: in the general population, in women, and in women of childbearing age. A meta-analysis of the literature was conducted to extract data on the prevalence of CCD in municipalities in Brazil in the 2010-2022 period: in the general population, in women, and in women of childbearing age. Municipal-level CCD indicators available in health information systems were selected. Statistical modeling of the data extracted from the meta-analysis (based on data obtained from information systems) was applied to linear, generalized linear, and additive models. The five most appropriate models were selected from a total of 549 models tested to obtain a consensus model (adjusted R2 = 54%). The most important predictor was self-reported CCD in the primary health care information system. Zero prevalence was estimated in 1 792 (32%) of Brazil's 5 570 municipalities; in the remaining 3 778 municipalities, average prevalence of the disease was estimated at 3.25% (± 2.9%). The number of carriers of CCD was estimated for the Brazilian population (~3.7 million), for women (~2.1 million) and for women of childbearing age (~590 000). The disease reproduction rate was calculated at 1.0336. All estimates refer to the 2015-2016 period. The estimated prevalence of CCD, especially among women of childbearing age, highlights the challenge of vertical transmission in Brazilian municipalities. Mathematical projections suggest that these estimates should be included in the national program for the elimination of vertical transmission of Chagas disease.

Nonspecific Effects of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Vaccine in Portuguese Children Under 5 Years of Age: Protocol for a Population-Based Historical Birth Cohort Study.

The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) against tuberculosis (TB) shows beneficial nonspecific effects, which are likely related to innate immune training. Until 2016, a single BCG dose was administered to all newborns in Portugal. In July 2016, a clinical guideline established that only children under 6 years belonging to high-risk groups should receive BCG. This might have prevented nonvaccinated children from developing trained immunological responses as effectively as BCG-vaccinated children. This study aims to investigate if there is variation in TB-related and all-cause mortality, and severe, moderate, or mild morbidity in children under 5 years of age, and whether such variation might be explained by the BCG vaccination policy change in 2016. This population-based historical birth cohort study includes children under 5 years of age born in Portugal between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2021. Newborns with low birth weight, premature status, or known or suspected HIV infection are excluded. The follow-up period is until the completion of 5 years of age or the end of follow-up (June 30, 2021). The study will use secondary data from the National Health Service user registry, death certificate database, vaccination registry, communicable diseases surveillance system, TB surveillance system, diagnosis-related group information system for hospital admissions and emergency department visits, and primary health care information system. The data will be linked. Primary outcomes include person-time incidence rates of death (all causes and TB), TB diagnosis, and all causes and some specific causes of severe, moderate, or mild morbidity, and the incidence rate ratio of nonvaccinated to BCG-vaccinated children. We will compare the probability of surviving the first and fifth years of life or of not having severe, moderate, or mild morbidity during the follow-up period according to exposure (BCG vaccinated or nonvaccinated, number of doses, and time from birth until the first dose), using the log-rank test for assessing differences in survival rates between exposed and nonexposed children and hazard ratios for quantifying the differences. Moreover, we will perform a proportional hazards regression analysis. Ethics approval has been obtained. In March 2022, database owners were contacted to present the project and discuss the request for data. A unique identifier will be used. In July 2023, a process of redefinition of the variables per database was initiated. Data were received in October and November 2023. In November 2023, further work was conducted. By April 2024, we expect to start analyzing the full data set. The results will contribute to the accumulating body of knowledge and might have relevance to guide global BCG vaccination policy. Data linkage can contribute to a swifter mechanism to use available health data to conduct population-based studies and inform policy decision-making. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05471167; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05471167. DERR1-10.2196/55332.

Evaluation of the impact of the implementation of the new primary health care information system on records of patient care and home visits in Brazil

The replacement of the Primary Care Information System (SIAB, 1998-2015), as of January 2016, by the new Health Information System for Primary Care (SISAB) determined new forms of collecting, processing, and using information, with a possible impact on the records of activities carried out in primary health care in Brazil. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation impact of the new information system on records of physicians' and nurses' patient care and home visits of community health workers (CHW) in Brazil from 2007 to 2019. To this end, a Bayesian structural time-series model approach was used, based on a diffuse state-space regression. From 2016 to 2019, 463.47 million physician care, 210.61 million nursing care, and 1.28 billion CHW visits were recorded. Following the trend recorded before the implementation, 598.86 million, 430.46 million, and 1.5 billion physician and nursing appointments and CHW visits would be expected, respectively. In relative terms, there was a decrease of 25% in physician care, 51% in nursing care, and 15% in CHW visits when compared to the value expected by the Bayesian method. The negative impact on the records of patient care and home visits identified in this study, whether due to difficulties in adapting to the new system or a reduction in improper records, must be investigated so that the challenge of improving the primary care information system can be understood and overcome in a planned way.

Indicadores de desempenho da Atenção Primária do Programa Previne Brasil

Objective: to analyze the scope of the performance indicators of the Previne Brasil Program of Primary Health Care. Method: an observational, descriptive study with a quantitative approach was carried out using secondary data, referring to the years 2020 and 2021, in the five Brazilian regions (North, Northeast, South, Southeast and Midwest), available in the Primary Health Care Information System. Descriptive statistics, relative frequencies and measures of central tendency and semiparametric modeling were used considering a 5% confidence interval. Results: there was evidence of evolution in the rates of performance indicators in most Brazilian regions in 2021, compared to 2020, however, the North and Midwest regions had incipient or negative rates, compared to the Southeast region. Despite the evolution in the rates of the indicators, few States managed to reach the goals established by the Ministry of Health for the strategic actions of prenatal care and women’s health; and no state achieved the goal in strategic action on chronic diseases. Conclusion: it is considered important to monitor the evolution of current indicators, envisioning their qualification so that they can evaluate primary health care and assistance, as well as guarantee the achievement of goals by ensuring funding for primary care actions.

An empirical comparison of the performances of single structure columnar in-memory and disk-resident data storage techniques using healthcare big data

Healthcare data in images, texts and other unstructured formats have continued to grow exponentially while generating storage concerns. Even though there are other complexities, volume complexity is a major challenge for Disk-Resident technique in storage optimization. Hence, this research aimed to empirically compare the efficiency of Disk-Resident and In-Memory single structure database technique (as opposed to multiple structure In-Memory database), using descriptive and inferential big data analytical approaches. The essence was to discover a more cost-effective storage option for healthcare big data. Data from Nigerian Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) alongside sample patients’ history from Made-in-Nigeria Primary Healthcare Information System (MINPHIS) which included patients’ investigation, patients’ bio-data and patients’ diagnoses were the primary data for this research. An implementation of both Disk-Resident and single structure In-Memory resident data storage was carried out on these big data sources. After storage, each quantity of data items stored for different data items in Disk-Resident was then compared with that of single structure In-Memory resident system using size of items as comparison criteria and different analyses made.The results obtained showed that single structure In-Memory technique conserved up to 90.57% of memory spaces with respect to the traditional (common) Disk-Resident technique for text data items. This shows that with this In-Memory technique, an improved performance in terms of storage was obtained.

Efeitos da pandemia de COVID-19 nos serviços odontológicos da atenção primária no Maranhão, Brasil

Abstract This article aims to analyze indicators of the utilization of oral health services (UOHS) in primary health care in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted an ecological time series study. The unit of analysis was the state of Maranhão, and the exposure variable was the COVID-19 pandemic, dichotomized into pre-pandemic and pandemic. The outcome variables were the monthly rates per 1,000 population of three UOHS indicators: rate of preventive procedures (RPP-PHC); rate of urgent procedures (RUP-PHC), and rate of curative procedures (RCP-PHC). The data were collected from the Primary Health Care Information System (SISAB) and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) for the period from 2015-2022. The analyses were performed using the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model. The three indicators showed an upward trend up to January 2019. The pandemic caused a significant reduction in the RPP (Xreg = -6.55; p-value = 0.0008) and RCP (Xreg = -4.74; p-value = 0.0005), starting in the first semester of 2020 and continuing into the second semester of 2022, but did not influence the RUP (Xreg = -0.03; p-value = 0.12). The COVID-19 pandemic caused a reduction in preventive and curative oral health services in Maranhão.

Zdravstveni kadrovi i reforma primarne zdravstvene zaštite u Crnoj Gori

Introduction: Universal health coverage reform activities in primary health care in Montenegro were conducted in the period between 2004 and 2012, with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the health care system by ensuring rational use and availability of resources. Aim: The purpose of this study is to describe the health personnel during and after the reform activities in Montenegro. Materials and methods: We adapted the four-dimensional World Health Organization framework to examine availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of the health personnel in public primary health care facilities, in Montenegro, during and after the reform. Availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health personnel were examined using a defined set of proxies. In addition, the latest available data on density rates of health personnel were presented, in order to examine the sustainability of the implemented reforms. The data used included primary health care information system data, data published by the Institute of Public Health of Montenegro, as well as data from a number of official and expert reports by relevant experts and institutions. Results: The total number of physicians employed in primary health care was reduced during the reform by 5%, while the number of nurses was decreased by 35%. At the same time, the number of GPs (chosen doctors for adults) increased, which improved their availability (54.4 in 2015 vs. 36.3 in 2004, per 100,000). Accessibility showed great variations among municipalities. The utilization of health care services, at the national level, increased by 25% in adult health care services. The reduction of the number of nurses was tailored to meet set norms in health care services for adults, women, and children. Reform activities improved the professional competencies of primary health care teams. Conclusion: Primary health care reform improved the availability and accessibility of health personnel and implemented activities that improved their acceptability and quality. It is recommended to establish a permanent body which would continuously monitor the functioning of the primary health care (PHC) system, as well as the changes that occur in PHC, thus ensuring that reform results are maintained and further improved.

Prescription patterns of diclofenac in patients with cardiovascular diseases or at high risk for cardiovascular diseases at primary health care level in Montenegro: Retrospective, national, drug utilization study

Background/Aim. Diclofenac, a non-selective inhibitor of cyclooxygenase with analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic effects, is one of the most prescribed nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The aim of this study was to analyze the prescription patterns of diclofenac systemic formulations at primary health care (PHC) level in Montenegro, in patients with cardiovascular (CV) diseases (CVD) and patients with risk factors for CVD, from 2016 to 2020. Methods. A retrospective national drug utilization study was conducted and it included patients with CVD, to whom prescribing diclofenac was contraindicated, and patients with risk factors for CVD, to whom diclofenac could be prescribed but with increased precaution. PHC information system has been used as a source of medical data for these patients. Results. Within the observed period, prescribing diclofenac systemic formulations, dominantly oral formulations in 75 mg dose, increased by 36.9% [from 4.6 of defined daily doses (DDD) /1,000 inhabitants/day in 2016 to 6.3 DDD/1,000 inhabitants/day in 2020]. A rising trend in prescribing diclofenac was also recorded in patients with CVD or those with risk factors for CVD, to whom diclofenac prescribing is contraindicated. Out of the overall number of patients who were prescribed diclofenac in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, 16%, 18%, 24%, 15%, and 20% of them, respectively, already had a CVD or some risk factor for CVD. Most CV patients (39.7%), for whom the use of diclofenac was contraindicated, had ischemic heart disease and were prescribed 40.7% of the total amount of diclofenac prescribed for this group of patients (expressed in DDD/1,000 inhabitants/day for the given medicine). The majority (77.4%) of CV patients to whom the drug could be prescribed, but with increased precautions, had hypertension, and they were prescribed 77.2% of the total amount of diclofenac prescribed for this group of patients (expressed in DDD/1,000 inhabitants/day for the given medicine). Conclusion. Despite the undertaken regulatory measures aimed at a safer prescription of diclofenac to patients with CVD or at high risk of developing CVD, this medicine is still widely prescribed at the level of PHC in Montenegro, even in cases that represent a contraindication for its use.

Gestational and congenital syphilis across the international border in Brazil.

Brazil lacks data from syphilis in its border areas. We aimed to describe the spatial and temporal distribution of acquired syphilis (AS), in pregnancy (SP) and congenital syphilis (CS) in Brazilian municipalities in the arches border contexts. An ecological, cross-sectional study was conducted from 2010 to 2020. The study was based on the cases of syphilis available in the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN), and on the Primary Health Care Information System. The detection rates of AS and SP, and the incidence of CS were estimated, and the time series was analyzed. Data between the border arches were compared. In 2020, data showed 7,603 cases of AS (detection rate 64.8/100,000 inhabitants), 3,960 cases of SP (detection rate of 21.6/1,000 live births) and 836 cases of CS (incidence of 4.6/1,000 live births) in the border region. Between 2010 and 2020, the mean annual increase of detection rate of SP was 53.4% in Brazil, 48.0% in the border region, 59.6% in the North Arch, 28.8% in the Central and 67.2% in the South. Annual variation on the incidence of CS for the same period was 31.0% in Brazil 38.4% at the border, in the North and South Arcs 18.3% and 65.7% respectively. The Central Arch showed an increase only between 2010 and 2018 (62.7%). A total of 427 (72.6%) municipalities has primary health care coverage ≥ 95% of the population. In 2019, 538 (91.8%) municipalities reported using rapid tests for syphilis, which decreased to 492 (84%) in 2020. In 2019, 441 (75.3%) municipalities reported administering penicillin, and 422 (72%) in 2020. Our data show syphilis reman problem at the Brazilian border, rates in pregnant are high. It was observed a reduction in the detection rates, SP and the incidence of CS between 2018 and 2020. Syphilis should be included on the agenda of all management levels, aiming at expanding access and quality care.

Barriers and challenges to Primary Health Care Information System (PHCIS) adoption from health management perspective: A qualitative study

Abstract Enactment of a National Health Information System regulation in 2014 by the Indonesian government enabled the integration of healthcare data using electronic systems in the country. However, limited information was gained regarding the barriers from the healthcare management point of view that might cause slowness of adoption. We evaluated the implementation of the Primary Health Care Information System (PHCIS) in order to explore and describe the barriers and challenges during the adoption of Primary Health Care (PHC) from a health management perspective, and propose a PHCIS design to minimize the barriers. A qualitative form of research was conducted in an urban area of Banten Province from February–April 2018, as that area has gained experience of PHCIS implementation for more than five years. An in-depth interview was recorded to explore and describe the barriers during PHCIS adoption. Four themes of the barriers have been identified from a strategic and operational level perspective, namely: human resources, infrastructure, organizational support, and processing. Our analysis suggests that PHCIS adoption could be more effective if there were greater interaction between human resources, infrastructure, organizational support, and process factors. Hence, involvements including: strengthening staff competency, improving technology infrastructure, increasing organizational support with more investment for high-quality PHCIS, and re-designing the PHCIS to accommodate the basic process of PHC , might be beneficent to improve PHCIS adoption.

Health Referral Enterprise Architecture Design in Indonesia.

ObjectivesIn this study an enterprise architecture (EA) was developed for a health referral information system (HRIS) for individual healthcare in Indonesia with reference to the Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) 9.1. The HRIS includes patient referrals for vertical and horizontal references (internal and external), specimen referrals, and health personnel referrals.MethodsThis research was a qualitative study that used the interview and observation method of the Primary Health Care Information System (SIMPUS) application developed by the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT). The interviews were conducted at South Tangerang City Government Health Office with five resource persons who were responsible for conducting health referral processes.ResultsThe EA of the HRIS includes the principles of architecture, business, application, data, and technology architecture. Twelve principles, four referral processes, and three application reference modules and centralized applications comprise the architecture of the HRIS. The HRIS is a centralized integrated application that uses application program interface (API) to integrate with SIMPUS.ConclusionsThe proposed architecture was developed in an integrated and comprehensive manner for the individual healthcare referral process, which can be implemented by regulators and healthcare facilities. This architecture can also help regulators and healthcare facilities to standardize and integrate health referral data and related processes.

Health Information System Research Situation in Indonesia: A Bibliometric Analysis

Health system strengthening has been greatly supported by system information. The progress and reliability of health information systems (HIS) are also influenced by contributions from existing research in HIS field. Research in health informatics has been focusing on the use of bibliometric analysis with regards to bibliometric tools and analysis of different sources of electronic evidence. We would like to answer whether the research has fulfilled the needs of problem solving in Indonesian health systems. This study explored the health information research topics in Indonesia through Sinta publication database and international resources (Scopus). This study used the bibliographic information from Google Scholar article database between 2014 to 2018 using total sampling technique. Data was extracted using Mendeley Web Importer and Mendeley Desktop tools. Indonesian health information researchers have shown their interest in using the most current approach in exploring health information through the big data and internet of things in their practice. This study showed an increasing number of local researchers who are interested in using health informatics as their focus of research in the 2014 - 2018 period. The most prevalent topics of research were hospital information systems, electronic medical records, mHealth, telemedicine, and primary health care information system (SIMPUS).

SIMPUS eHealth Evaluation at Bantul District, Yogyakarta

Indonesia government through Indonesia Ministry of Health has developing Health Information System, including Primary Health Care Information System Management (SIMPUS), as a tool to acquire an accurate data to improve society health quality. SIMPUS has been implemented in several districts in Indonesia, including Bantul District, Yogyakarta. But, founded several problems during the implementation. This research aimed to evaluate SIMPUS eHealth implementation compared to IHIS. Qualitative with case study approach was used to capture the data in Piyungan Public Health Centre. PIECES was employed as an evaluation method. Our respondents were SIMPUS manager, SIMPUS officer in mother and child health, SIMPUS officer in patient registration, and SIMPUS officer in the medical record. Our research revealed that eHealth was powerfull than IHIS. Nevertheless, there were several limitations on eHealth such as less of control-security and service. For future research suggested to include more number of Puskesmas as a sample to figure out the comprehensive problem

Speech, Language and Hearing services in Primary Health Care in Brazil: an analysis of provision and an estimate of shortage, 2005-2015

ABSTRACT Objective: to investigate the evolution and estimate the shortage of Speech, Language and Hearing professionals in Primary Health Care between 2005 and 2015. Methods: a mixed ecological study using data from the National Registry of Health Facilities and the Primary Health Care Information System. A descriptive analysis regarding the evolution of the number of professionals working in Primary Health Care over this period, in Brazilian states and regions, was conducted. The ratio of professionals per 100,000 inhabitants for the years 2005, 2010 and 2015, and the shortages in 2015, were estimated. Results: in 2005, there were 1,717 professionals working in Primary Health Care, that is, one per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2015, there were 4,124, increasing to 2.1/100,000. In 2015, the shortage in supply was 55.1%, varying widely across the states. Conclusion: the shortage in supply is equivalent to an absence of Speech, Language and Hearing service coverage within Primary Health Care for more than half of the Brazilian population. It is worth noting that a conservative parameter was adopted to conduct this estimate. The results suggest a process of consolidation for the inclusion of Speech, Language and Hearing professionals within Primary Health Care, however, still characterized by insufficient and unequal supply across the nation.

Time trends of hypertension and diabetes mellitus prevalence among adults registered in the Brazilian National Health System, in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina State, Brazil, 2004-2011.

to investigate the time trend of prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and both diseases combined, from 2004 to 2011; and to analyze their association with sociodemographic factors in adults registered in the Brazilian National Health System (SUS) in Florianópolis-SC, Brazil, in 2011. time-series study using secondary data from the Primary Health Care Information System of adults (≥20 years) at SUS; Prais-Winsten regression was used. from 2004 to 2011, prevalences of hypertension (7 to 13.5%), diabetes (2.2 to 4.2%) and both diseases combined (1.2 to 2.9%) increased; after adjustment, the occurrence of the diseases was higher among women (except for the association of hypertension with diabetes), the elderly, less educated and residents in the Mainland and South sanitary districts. the occurrence of the investigated diseases doubled from 2004 to 2011. However, the prevalences found are below the ones described in the Brazilian scientific literature.

Mental disorders record on the Brazilian primary health care information system, 2014.

to describe the occurrence of the recording of mental disorders (MD) in primary health care (PHC) services in Brazilian municipalities and to analyze associated factors. an ecological study was conducted using PHC Information System secondary data for the year 2014; the magnitude of the occurrence of MD recording was assessed through indicators developed for this purpose; bivariate analysis was used. 15,216 MD cases were recorded in 42 (0.8%) municipalities, corresponding to 16.9 MD cases/100,000 inhabitants for Brazil, with significant variations between the country's macro-regions; MD recording in PHC was most frequent in the Southeast and Southern macro-regions (p=0.001), in state capital cities (p<0.001), in municipalities with more than 200,000 inhabitants (p<0.001), those with PHC coverage greater than 75% (p=0.005) and those with Psychosocial Care Centers (p=0.001). recording of MD in PHC is incipient, unequally distributed and possibly dependent on local initiatives.

Indicadores socioeconômicos e a oferta de serviços na atenção básica em saúde bucal em municípios do Estado de Goiás, Brasil

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between socioeconomic indexes (SEI) and the provision of public dental care services in the municipalities of the State of Goias, Brazil. Methods: Data were obtained from the Health Development Atlas, the Brazilian Federal Dental Council and the Primary Healthcare Information System (PHIS). The following socioeconomic indexes were used: Gini coefficient, Human Development Index (HDI), per-capita income and illiteracy rates. The k-means cluster analysis was used to group municipalities according to their socioeconomic variables, and these groups were compared according to the number of inhabitants per dentist, coverage of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) and Oral Healthcare Teams (OHT), and the Variable Budget for Primary Oral Healthcare (VBPOH) per inhabitant. Results: Three subgroups were clustered according to their SEI: high (n=21), intermediary (n=109) and low (n=112). There was less funding for oral health per inhabitant and less coverage by the FHS and OHT for municipalities with better SEI, and the inhabitants/dentist ratio was higher in lower SEI (p<0.001). Conclusion: The assumption of equity in the public health system was achieved. However, the distribution of dentists in municipalities with different socioeconomic levels is consistent with the rationale of the private market.

Factors associated with chronic diseases among the elderly receiving treatment under the Family Health Strategy.

The profile of a sample population of elderly receiving treatment under the Family Health Strategy in the municipality of Teófilo Otoni, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is described, and the factors associated with diseases prevalence examined. Using simple random sampling, 385 elderly were interviewed using Form A and Elderly Form from the Primary Health Care Information System. The majority of the sample (83.1%) self-reported at least one disease, 69.9% had hypertension, and 17.7% had diabetes. Poisson regression analysis showed that the main factors associated with hypertension and other diseases were being non-white, having a low level of education, medication use, dental prosthesis use, and lack of a private health plan. The prevalence of diabetes was greater among women and individuals who depended on other people to live. It can be concluded that this sample population of elderly has a generally low socioeconomic status and are more susceptible to developing diseases, particularly hypertension. Diabetes should be controlled although had relatively low prevalence. It is suggested investments in structuring the health system network to provide adequate care for the elderly and in training health professionals to play an effective role in improving the quality of life of the elderly in Brazil.

Analysis of the use of data from the Primary Health Care Information System (SIAB): an integrative review of the literature

This paper aimed to identify instances of the use of data from the Primary Health Care Information System in the existing scientific literature. This study is an Integrative Literature Review and the search for articles was performed in May, 2013 in the Virtual Healthcare Library (MedLine, Lilacs and SciELO), considering publications from 2008 to 2012. The search for articles initially located 164 texts, though after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, this review concentrated on 12 articles. The main results showed that there are fragilities like the use of the form just for the record and the insufficient training of the teams. However, the positive aspect is that the Primary Health Care Information System is the leading source of health information and statistics, and that its information can and must be used for health planning activities. Thus, it is an information system that assists municipal management and the actions in health of its teams, alerting the community to the need for care of individual health.

Solução computacional para sistematizar indicadores de gestão na Atenção Básica.

The purpose of this study is to present the Software to Support the Management of Family Health Centers (Software de Apoio a Gestao de Nucleos de Saude da Familia – SAG-NFS), which is a monitoring and evaluation tool that organizes data from the primary health care information system (Sistema de Informacao da Atencao Basica - SIAB). In October 2011, Ribeirao Preto in Sao Paulo (SP) joined the National Program for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Health Care (Programa Nacional de Melhoria do Acesso e Qualidade da Atencao Basica - PMAQ-AB) with 19 (63.3%) family health care teams (Equipes de Saude da Familia - ESF). This study was conducted using four ESF connected with the Ribeirao Preto Medical School at the University of Sao Paulo. A tool was created to continuously and systematically generate reports and indicators for the PMAQ-AB. The tool includes time-lapse segregation filters, which show trends for health care indicators in a population attended by the ESF. The reports generated by this tool provide a foundation for PMAQ-AB discussions with ESF and teaching coordinators. Such discussions helped the teams understand the indicators and goals defined by city management in assessing the quality of and access to primary health care. We conclude that this computational tool can assist ESF in the health assessment process.