Investigating the cost-effectiveness of health information technologies: a systematic review protocol
This study examines how selected British hospitals made the transition to electronic health records. The paper discusses how the hospitals planned and executed the transition. Pay special attention to the unexpected impacts of implementing new software.
Methods And Analysis
Eligibility criteria
Interventions of interest
We are interested in a broad range of HIT, which include tools to support the management of data (eg, EHRs), support and enhance clinical decision- making (eg, computerised physician order entry and computerised decision support systems) and provide care at a distance (eg, telehealthcare).
Study design
The following study designs will be potentially eligible for inclusion:
- Systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-RCTs, controlled clinical trials, controlled before-after-studies, interrupted time series and before-after or cohort type evaluations, undertaken with formal health economic evaluations from the perspective of healthcare providers.
- Economic modelling studies.
Outcome measures
- Primary outcome
- Estimates of the range of cost-effectiveness of HITs.
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Secondary outcomes
- Description of HITs that have been subjected to formal economic evaluation, the geographical, policy and clinical contexts in which these deployments have been made, the time frames over which the economic evaluations have been undertaken and the lessons learned.
- Insights into interventions that are potentially costeffective based on economic modelling studies.