Improving the Quality of Primary Care Data With Interoperable Standards

Abstract

The quest to improve the quality and safety of healthcare delivery has resulted in the development of many interoperable standards. Most of these standards are developed so as to ensure that primary care data are captured, represented and conveyed appropriately in integrated healthcare information systems. Appropriate representation of primary care data will facilitate the secondary uses of the health data. Secondary uses of primary care data have the potential to not only support the clinical decision-making process by healthcare providers but also provide an evidence-based practice. In this paper, a literature review methodology is used to explore how the quality of primary care data can be improved using interoperable standards.