Governance

IT teams could build and construct the SRS IT systems to enable and encourage IT governance at the programmatic level. Entire textbook are written on this purpose, and this page is not intended to replace those resources. Rather, this page attempts to highlight some technical capabilities that all SRS IT systems should have that could assist with governance and monitoring efforts:

• Role-based Access
  All VA IT systems should be enabled with role-based access controls, where users can be appropriately scoped to only see data for which they typically have access. In an SRS context, this often entails having regional staff only able to see data from within their region. Additionally, some staff are often designated “view-only” as opposed to being able to edit.
• Secure Data Protocols
  SRS data should be considered as protected information, and secure data protocol should be implemented. Everyone in the system should not have access fo all of the protected identifiable and health information, and creating a user type that masks such protected infromation—while still allowing such users to use SRS data at aggregated levels—may be necessary.
• Logging system interactions for audits
  All user interactions with all SRS systems should be logged. This includes, but is not limited to, log in and log out events, event/VA creation, data access, and data download. Such logs should enable auditing of the systems, both for overall maintenance and debugging as well as to handle potential securty issues (should they arise).
• Compliance with all local laws and policies
  Each country has local laws and policies, as well as processes for software approval by digital health committees. This page is not intended to supersede any such laws, and all SRS IT development should be made with awareness and compliance of country regulations.

Last updated
9 January 2026
Portions of this page are © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. Approved for Public Release #25-2779. Distribution Unlimited. The source of this information is the Technical Assistance for Sample Registration Systems (SRS) Planning Grants, a joint project of the CDC Foundation and Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute through the Gates Foundation SRS Grant.