Assessing the potential of national strategies for electronic health records for population health monitoring and research

Abstract

"Initiated in October 2004, this project builds upon two previous reports that portray a new landscape for health statistics: Shaping a Health Statistics Vision for the 21st Century: The Final Report, a joint report developed by the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Data Council (Friedman, Hunter, Parrish 2002); and Information for Health: A Strategy for Building the National Health Information Infrastructure, a report released by the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (2001)." - p. 1"The purpose of this report is to assess the potential of national strategies for electronic health records for population health monitoring and research. The emphasis in this report is upon those types of population health monitoring typically used to develop health statistics, such as population-based registries, population-based surveys, and administrative health data, rather than those types of population health monitoring used to detect health events and diseases for the purposes of immediate public health interventions. More specifically, this report has a fourfold purpose: first, to describe the current status of national strategies for electronic health records and their supporting national health information infrastructures in Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand, especially as those national strategies relate to population health monitoring to produce health statistics and research employing health statistics; second, to summarize themes about the potential contributions, and barriers to those contributions, of national strategies for electronic health records for population health monitoring and research and barriers that emerged from key informant interviews with experts in the same four countries; third to summarize themes emerging from key informant interviews with U.S. experts; and fourth, to delineate major fundamental issues in the relationship between national strategies for electronic health records and population health and monitoring." -.p. 1-21. Introduction -- 2. Methods -- 3. Factors impacting on national strategies for electronic health records -- 4. Nation snapshots: Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand -- 5. Common themes in interviews with expert informants in Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand -- 6. Common themes in interviews with expert informants in the U.S. -- 7. Fundamental issues in the relationship of national strategies for electronic health records to population health monitoring and research -- References -- Acronyms and glossary -- Tables -- Figures -- Appendix 1. Structured search criteria -- Appendix 2. Journals and newsletters reviewed -- Appendix 3.Typical interview guide (English expert) -- Appendix 4. Key informants"January 2006."Author: Daniel J. Friedman, Population and Public Health Information Services.Also available via the World Wide Web.Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-70)