Clinical and Para Clinical Information Needs of Infertility Electronic Health Records in Iran: A Delphi Study

Abstract

Background:infertility is referred to the person’s inability to conceive pregnancy after one year of intercourse without using protection. This study paves the ground for creating a complete, united, and coherent source of patients’ medical information.Materials and Methods:this is an applied research of descriptive-cross sectional type which has been carried out through qualitative – quantitative methods. The sample of the present study was 50 specialists in the field of infertility which has been chosen based on purposive sampling method. Designing the questionnaire was done based on library studies and Gathering experts’ views was done based on Delphi technique.Results:261 items from clinical and Para clinical information of infertile patients’ electronic health records were subjected to an opinion poll by experts. During this process 223 items were accepted and 38 items have been rejected after two sessions of surveys by infertility experts. Para clinical information section consisted of 57 items that all of them have been accepted by the experts. Also, clinical information section consisted of 242 items from which 204 items were accepted and 38 items were rejected by the experts.Conclusion:existence of a structured electronic record system of infertile patients’ information leads to the integration of patients’ information, improvement of health care services and a decrease in treatment costs: all working to increase information safety. Furthermore, only essential and relevant information would be provided for the specialists and it will facilitate and direct the future infertility related studies due to the coherence, unity and relevance of the information.

Designing and Validating Infertility Data Recording Tools in Iran

“…This instrument consists of 5 domains of demographic data, medical history, paraclinical data, treatment plans, and treatment outcomes. The results of two studies (using the Delphi technique) on infertility registry data in Iran (29,30) revealed that most infertility experts agreed with the design of a tool for the infertility registry system that contained medical history, treatment plant, treatment outcome, and donor information domains, and the coefficient of the agreement was greater than 75%. These results are consistent with those of the current study.…”

Infertility Information System with an approach to Data Architecture: A Systematic Review

“…in sources [20,[45][46][47]. and couples' treatments [45]. Another categorization divides these data into three main groups: the patient's main information, the previous medical history, and the treatment plan [47].…”