Assessing the economic efficiency of medical information technologies calls for a quantitative comparison of costs and results. If the required indicators can be obtained, the efficiency can be estimated using known methods of economic efficiency evaluation for investment projects The next step in coming closer to a solution for the above task is to analyze common approaches to evaluating the efficiency of information systems irrespective of their domain. We should note here the lack of methods reliable in terms of practical application. Practical designs are available only for particular cases where specific conditions related to the type and domain of information systems introduced are assumed. Since a unified approach to the evaluation of information technologies' economic efficiency is not available, special methods must be developed for information systems aimed at solving particular management problems, especially in medicine. Such methods are mostly of a heuristic nature and are based on the study of costs and economic effects after the introduction of information systems in a particular case. If the costs and effects of implementing such systems can be evaluated, it is possible to subsequently apply the above common approach to assessing the economic efficiency of investment projects. The preferred level in solving the problem of assessing the efficiency of medical information systems is hardly attainable; therefore, a positive achievement here would be revealing the positive effects of introducing a particular information system in which each effect is measured by specific quality parameters. The above deductive logic in the development of methods for evaluating the efficiency of medical information technologies is observed in the below analysis of the present state of studies in the topic in question. A General Approach to Evaluating the Economic Efficiency of Investment Projects. Universal methodological recommendations for evaluating the efficiency of investment projects contain general principles and are suitable only for the most typical industrial projects. These methodological recommendations point to the need for using special procedures to assess the economic effects derived from non-standard situations (e.g., in projects for developing science and technology and environmental projects), one sign that the above methodological techniques are aimed at application broader than just the manufacturing of commodities. Such techniques for assessing efficiency should define the preferred area for investing funds among all potential areas in industry, science, public medical, and so on. The same methodological guideline should enable us to compare the efficiencies of any nonstandard projects with those of industrial projects, since the same financial resources are invested in both categories of projects. One problem of evaluating the efficiency of information technologies is describing their effects, which are not revenues from sales of products output and thus differ from the effects of industrial investment projects. The existing methodical guidelines contain references to the probability of such situations. They underline especially that investment is made to acquire a benefit. The tern "benefit" is used to show that the purposes of investment projects are not limited to a net profit in sales, but can take on other forms, e.g., the saving of funds and the prevention of losses. Apart Abstract -The topic of how to assess the economic efficiency of medical information technologies in a model of the system of electronic medical records is considered in this paper. The paper also gives an analysis of foreign approaches that would be interesting to consider for application in Russian conditions to assess the economic benefits of introducing the above information system in inpatient and outpatient care facilities
