Prior to 1995, the Health Informatics Department was called the Statistical Unit. The Statistical Unit was established in 1971 with a sole Statistical Officer. The purpose of the Unit at that time was to collect health data which would assist in completing the Chief Medical Officer’s Report. The primary duties were coding and tallying of mortality, communicable disease and the Doctor’s case book which contains morbidity cases. The Unit also assisted the Medical Records Department at the Holberton Hospital. As years passed, the Unit progressively became more developed with the introduction of more staff and added services.

In 1995 PAHO funded the Community Health Information Systems project (CHIS) and as result, the Statistical Unit was upgraded and renamed to Health Information Division (HID).  A new post(national instructor) was introduced. At that time, the responsibilities of that his post was to train health personnel to become computer literate with the use of modules and to see proper maintenance of the computer systems. In1996 a number of automated machines were introduced to manage the data. As a result of this, the mission of the Division was to capture relevant health statistics; train health personnel, produce publications on health related matter, function as a Resource Centre for the general public and to report to Regional-based organization on existing health related matters.

With the continued evolution of the Health Information Division, subsequently it was felt that the name Health Information Division did not truly mirror the services that the division was offering and a proposed name change to Health Informatics Department was in the works for a number of years to come.

In 2007 after a number of meetings involving the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Health, the Chief Medical Officer, the Medical Officer of Health and Statistician at Health Information, the decision to establish what is Health Informatics Department came to fruition. It was also later that year that the Health Education Unit was amalgamated with Health Information Division hence the Health Informatics Department.

Overall, the activity structure of the Health is intended to include Health Information Research and Data Coordination Section, Technological Systems Section, Health Education and Promotion Section, Epidemiological and Statistic Section, Monitor and Evaluation Section and Ancillary Services Section. Therefore, although not fully operational in its intended construct, the day to day activities are consistent and ongoing.