Assessment of Health Information Technology Interventions in Evidence-Based Medicine: A Systematic Review by Adopting a Methodological Evaluation Framework.

BACKGROUND: The application of Health Information Technologies ( HITs ) can be an effective way to advance medical research and health services provision. The two-fold objective of this work is to: (i) identify and review state-of-the-art HITs that facilitate the aims of evidence-based medicine and (ii) propose a methodology for HIT assessment.

METHODS: The systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses ( PRISMA ) guidelines. Furthermore, we consolidated existing knowledge in the field and proposed a Synthesis Framework for the Assessment of Health Information Technology ( SF/HIT ) in order to evaluate the joint use of Randomized Controlled Trials ( RCTs ) along with HITs in the field of evidence-based medicine.

RESULTS: 55 articles met the inclusion criteria and refer to 51 ( RCTs ) published between 2008 and 2016. Significant improvements in healthcare through the use of HITs were observed in the findings of 31 out of 51 trials-60.8%. We also confirmed that RCTs are valuable tools for assessing the effectiveness, acceptability, safety, privacy, appropriateness, satisfaction, performance, usefulness and adherence.

CONCLUSIONS: To improve health service delivery, RCTs apply and exhibit formalization by providing measurable outputs. Towards this direction, we propose the SF/HIT as a framework which may help researchers to carry out appropriate evaluations and extend their studies.