Q.U.i.P.S.--a quality model for investigating risk exposure in e-health systems

The increasing dependency being placed on electronic health information systems presents new challenges for today's health managers and systems developers. This paper uses Electronic Health Records as an example to demonstrate how there are four critical attributes for e-health system development. To produce dependable and viable IT solutions, each attribute needs to be specifically addressed and prioritized. It will be shown how these attributes possess a number of interdependencies making the analysis and prioritization tasks complex and hence, in practice, often incomplete. The proposed QUiPS model aims to provide a complete framework for building trustworthy solutions. It identifies the pertinent issues and the tools and techniques needed to determine the risk exposure with a given system. The results from one of the Case Studies that focuses on Usability is detailed, while other studies relating to Safety and Privacy are outlined. The outcomes to the proposed approach are e-health systems that the clinicians and patients alike can trust and will, therefore, be fully accepted.