Discussion paper: Challenges in evaluating health IT solutions: Measuring improvements in quality of care and patient safety
Marie-Claire Richer, Director, Transition Support Office; Patricia Lefebvre, Director, Quality, Risk and Performance; Carole Lapierre, Manager, Clinical Information Systems, Information Services; Alain Biron, Assistant to the Director, Quality, Risk and Performance, Evaluation Advisor, Transition Support Office; Claude Lemieux, Project Manager, Technological Transition, Transition Support Office; Monique Périé, Project Manager, Transition Support Office
*McGill University Health Centre
Improved safety and quality of care are the compelling reasons behind investments in information technology (IT) systems in the healthcare sector. The seminal studies in this area are the Institute of Medicine reports of 1999 to 2001, which pointed to IT systems as an essential tool in preventing adverse events and improving use of evidence-based practice. However, evaluating IT systems to demonstrate improvements in quality and safety remains extraordinarily difficult, and there is currently much debate about exactly how these systems should be treated from an evaluation perspective. Should they be studied in the same way as health technologies and drugs with the aim of producing ‘robust scientific evidence’ for their adoption? This often appears to be what funders of such systems require in order to continue their investment, but is it feasible? Or are alternative approaches required?
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