"Healthcare Information For All is an ambitious goal but it can be achieved if all stakeholders work together" World Health Organization 2006
HIFA is a global health network with more than 20,000 members (health workers, librarians, publishers, researchers, policymakers...) committed to the progressive realisation of a world where every person has access to the healthcare information they need to protect their own health and the health of others.
HIFA members have a vast and unique experience and expertise which they can use to bring clarity to challenging questions around global health issues in general and healthcare information issues in particular.
One-third of members are based in Africa, one-third in Europe, and one-third in the rest of the world. HIFA members represent more than 2500 organisations across 178 countries worldwide, and interact on five HIFA Forums in three languages (English, French, Portuguese - Spanish soon). Join here (free).
HIFA was launched in Mombasa, Kenya in October 2006, at the 10th Congress of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa. In 2004 the World Health Organization had commissioned a global review on access to healthcare information, leading to a paper in The Lancet by Fiona Godlee et al: 'Can we achieve health information for all by 2015?'. The authors called for all stakeholders to work together to improve the availability and use of healthcare information. The HIFA campaign is a direct response to that challenge.
HIFA is administered by the Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based non-profit in official relations with the World Health Organization since 2022.
A note on definition: Reliable healthcare information is the information people need to protect their own health and the health of others. By definition, such information should not only be accurate and up to date, it should also be unbiased and reflect, as far as possible, the cumulative evidence based on robust research; it should be in the right language, technical level, and format; it should be relevant and applicable to the person’s immediate situation (which is always changing); and the person should be empowered to differentiate it from the barrage of misinformation that does not fulfil these criteria.