Evaluating the ability of hospital information systems to establish evidence-based medicine in Iran

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the correct use of the best evidences in clinical decision making for patient care. Hospital Information Systems (HIS) can act as a bridge between medical data and medical knowledge through context-sensitive merging and filtering of patient data, individual clinical knowledge and external evidence. The aim of this study was to determine the ability of HISs to establish EBM in Iran. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on HISs of 30 hospitals from March 2011 to October 2011. Data were collected using a researcher-constructed checklist including applicant's background information as well as information based on research objectives: clinical decision support system (CDSS), reference databases, contextual and case-specific information, clinical and administrative data repositories and Internet-based health information. Face and content validity of the checklist were assessed by the qualified specialists and then the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS 16 software. The results of the study revealed that the HISs lacked the essential components to providing access to CDSS, reference databases and Internet-based health information in 19, 16 and 20 hospitals were 63.3 %, 53.3 % and 66.7, respectively. Twenty-two hospitals (70 %) had more than two-thirds of the essential components to access clinical and administrative data repositories; 23 hospitals (76.7 %) had at least one essential component to access contextual and case-specific information. It can be concluded that the ability of the HISs to establish EBM in providing access to the clinical and administrative data repositories is better than other research objectives. Furthermore, more attention should be paid to other related objectives.