 Healthcare ICT needs better
evaluation
From the Institute for
Public Policy Research
The benefits of ICT to health services could be huge but risk being
jeopardised by a failure to provide evidence of impact, according to a
report published today (Tuesday) by the Institute for Public Policy Research
(ippr). The research — based on an examination of large ICT pilots in the
NHS — concludes that public and political support for unprecedented spending
on ICT investment in health services will not be realised without better
planning and evaluation.
ippr's report says that poor evaluation of pilot services — now being
rolled out across the NHS — make it impossible to tell whether they will
deliver the widely promised benefits. This includes trials of electronic
patient records which failed to demonstrate that they would lead to more
flexible services, cost savings or improvements in treatment of patients. In
addition, pilots of electronic appointment booking systems have not clearly
shown that they help facilitate greater choice for patients over where, when
and by whom they are treated.
Jamie Bend, ippr Research Fellow and report author, said: "The potential
benefits of ICT use in the health service could be huge and make a real
impact on the direct experience of patients and health professionals. This
potential needs to be demonstrated in practice. Unless it's proven that
things like electronic health records work, it will remain difficult to
justify to doctors, nurses and patients existing and additional spending on
ICT. Few of the problems with evaluation are new, yet they continue to occur
and there is a perception that ICT projects have failed. This is not a
reason to reject the use of ICT but to redouble efforts to use
it effectively."
ippr recommends that:
- evaluations of ICT projects in health are always clearly linked to the
stated aims of the projects;
- adequate time and resources should be allocated to evaluation; and
- appropriate data should be collected to examine the effectiveness of
projects.
Public Value in eHealth, by Jamie Bend is available from
www.ippr.org/digital
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