Quality Requirements for Electronic Health Record Systems*. A Japanese-German Information Management Perspective.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Information Systems in Healthcare
• Comparative Health Systems Analysis

Background:

• Long-standing collaboration between Japanese and German scientists in healthcare information systems.
• Formalized agreement between scientific associations led to joint workshops on electronic health record systems (EHRS).
• Exploration of similarities and differences in EHRS within the context of shared commonalities in Japanese and German healthcare systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• Establish a comprehensive framework and requirements for assessing the quality of electronic health record systems (EHRS).
• Develop a foundation for effectively comparing diverse EHRS.
• Adapt established quality dimensions to the specific context of EHRS.

Main Methods:

• Adapted Donabedian's three dimensions of quality (outcome, process, structural) to EHRS and their management.
• Proposed quality dimensions prior to the first EHRS expert workshop.
• Enriched the quality dimensions through expert discussions during workshops.

Main Results:

• Defined the Quality Requirements Framework of EHRS (QRF-EHRS).
• Integrated three quality dimensions: outcome, process, and structural quality.
• Incorporated three information system layers (processes/data, applications, tools) and three information management dimensions (strategic, tactical, operational).

Conclusions:

• Recognized the multidimensional nature of EHRS quality description and comparison, as outlined by the QRF-EHRS.
• The QRF-EHRS framework will be instrumental in comparing Japanese and German EHRS.
• The framework's utility is demonstrated by its application to EHRS presented at the second workshop.