Building Consensus on the Priority-Setting for National Policies in Health Information Technology: A Delphi Survey

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Health Information Technology (HIT)
• Digital Health

Background:

• The healthcare industry is increasingly leveraging big data and AI, driving global interest in health information technology (HIT).
• Various countries are developing policies and projects to advance HIT.
• Prioritizing HIT topics is essential for effective policy-making.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and prioritize key health information technology (HIT) topics for policy-making.
• To gather expert consensus on the importance, urgency, and difficulty of HIT topics.
• To guide strategic investments in health informatics.

Main Methods:

• The Delphi technique was employed, involving two rounds of email surveys.
• A panel of 16 health informatics experts from Korean health policy and informatics societies participated.
• Experts evaluated HIT topics across technology, application, and infrastructure domains based on importance, urgency, and difficulty.

Main Results:

• Unanimous agreement was reached on the importance of 6 HIT topics (2 technology, 1 application, 3 infrastructure).
• A significant number of items (7 technology, 2 application, 13 infrastructure) were identified as having high importance and high urgency.
• The infrastructure domain dominated the list of high-priority HIT topics.

Conclusions:

• Health information technology (HIT) infrastructure development should be a primary policy focus.
• Expert consensus indicates that a strong infrastructural environment is critical for advancing HIT.
• Strategic prioritization of infrastructure is key to maximizing the impact of health information technology.