Towards a National Health Information System evaluation

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Information Systems Evaluation
• Public Health Policy

Background:

• Many EU Member States have documented eHealth policies.
• However, systematic evaluation strategies for national eHealth systems are infrequent.
• Established methodologies for large-scale health information system assessment are lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development of the Finnish National Health Information System (NHIS) evaluation plan.
• To illustrate the core elements of this evaluation plan.
• To discuss implementation challenges and solutions for national health information system evaluations.

Main Methods:

• The approach used to generate the Finnish NHIS evaluation plan.
• Referencing the NHIS evaluation planning project and MIE workshop discussions.
• Utilizing the Finnish NHIS evaluation plan as a framework for discussing large-scale evaluation challenges.

Main Results:

• The Finnish NHIS evaluation plan provides a structured approach to assessing national health information systems.
• Key elements of the plan, including challenges and solutions, are presented.
• The plan serves as a reference for developing national evaluation methodologies.

Conclusions:

• Developing comprehensive evaluation plans for national health information systems is crucial.
• The Finnish NHIS evaluation plan offers a practical model for other countries.
• Standardized methodologies are needed for effective large-scale health information system assessment.