Summary
Objectives: Clinical information systems (CISs) have generated opportunities for meaningful improvements
both in patient care and workflow but there is still a long way to perfection. Healthcare
providers are still facing challenges of data exchange, management, and integration
due to lack of functionality among these systems. Our objective here is to systematically
review, synthesize, and summarize the literature that describes the current stage
of clinical information systems, so as to assess the current state of knowledge, and
identify benefits and challenges.
Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, and the bibliographies of articles were searched for studies published
until September 1, 2017, which reported on significant advancement of clinical information
systems, as well as problems and opportunities in this field. Studies providing the
most detailed information were included and the others were kept only as references.
Results: We selected 23 papers out of 1,026 unique abstracts for full-text review using our
selection criteria, and 20 out of these 23 studies met all of our inclusion criteria.
We focused on three major areas: 1) Ambulatory and inpatients clinical information
systems; 2) Specialty information systems; and 3) Ancillary information systems. As
CIS can support evidence-based practices that, in turn, improve patient's safety,
quality and efficacy of care, advancement, acceptability, and adaptability of CIS
have increased worldwide. Although, the demand for CIS functionality is rising fast,
current CISs still have data integration challenges and lack of functionality to exchange
patient information from all or some parts of the healthcare system. These limitations
can be attributed to technical, human, and organizational factors
Conclusion: Clinical information systems provide tremendous opportunities to reduce clinical
errors such as medication errors and diagnostic errors and to support healthcare professionals
by offering up-to-date patient information. They promise to improve workflow and efficiency
of care, thus boosting the overall quality of healthcare.
Keywords
Clinical Information System - Electronic Medical Record - Hospital Information System
- Computerized Provider Order Entry
