JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Evaluating Health Information System (HIS) quality is strategically advantageous for improving patient care quality. Nevertheless, few systematic studies report what methods (such as standards, processes, and tools) have been proposed to evaluate HIS quality.

Objective:

This study aims to identify and discuss the existing literature that describes standards, processes, and tools used to evaluate HIS quality.

Methods:

We conduct a systematic literature review using review guidelines focused on software and systems. We examined seven electronic databases (Scopus, ACM, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, IEEE Xplorer, the Web of Science and PubMed) to search and select primary studies. Three researchers and three collaborators participated in the review and quality assessment process of the studies.

Results:

Out of 782 papers, we identified 17 primary studies. We found that most of the primary studies address quality evaluation from a management perspective. On the other hand, there is little explicit and pragmatic evidence on the processes and tools that allow evaluation of HIS quality.

Conclusions:

To promote quality evaluation of HISs, it is necessary to define mechanisms and methods that operationalize the standards of HISs. Additionally, it is necessary to create metrics that measure the quality of the most critical components and processes of HISs.