Investigating evaluation frameworks for health information systems
Received 15 December 2005; received in revised form 12 August 2007; accepted 12 August 2007. published online 30 January 2009.
Abstract
Background and purpose
Evaluation of health information systems (HIS) enables the assessment of the extent to which HIS are fulfilling their objectives in supporting the services of healthcare delivery. This paper presents an overview of evaluation in health informatics and information systems.
Methods
Literature review on discourses, dimensions and methods of HIS and IS evaluation. A critical appraisal of selected HIS and IS evaluation frameworks is undertaken in order to identify HIS evaluation dimensions and measures. The frameworks are compared based on their inclusion of human, organizational and technological factors.
Results
We found that an increasing number of evaluation studies deal with two distinct trends of HIS: one considers human and organizational issues and the other is concerned with the employment of a subjectivist approach. Our review indicates that current evaluation methods complement each other in that they evaluate different aspects of HIS and they can be improved upon.
Conclusions
Evaluation is complex; it is easy to measure many things but not necessarily the right ones. Nevertheless, it is possible to consider, a HIS evaluation framework with more comprehensive and specific measures that would incorporate technological, human and organizational issues to facilitate HIS evaluation.
ABSTRACT