Utilisation of hospital information systems for medical research in Saudi Arabia: A mixed-method exploration of the views of healthcare and IT professionals involved in hospital database management systems

Abstract

Background: Although in recent times the Saudi government has paid much attention to the adaptation of hospital information systems (HIS) and electronic medical records (EMR), the importance of utilising HIS to enhance medical research has been neglected. Objective: We aimed to (i) investigate the current state of medical research in Saudi Arabia, (ii) identify possible issues that hinder improvement of medical research and (iii) identify possible solutions to enhance the role of HIS in medical research in Saudi Arabia. Method: We used a questionnaire and structured interview approach. Questionnaires were distributed to Saudi healthcare professionals. One hundred responses to our questionnaire were captured by the online Google Form designed specifically for our survey. Structured interviews with two IT professionals were conducted regarding technical aspects of their hospital data management systems. Results: Six themes contributing to the inefficacy of HIS in medical research in Saudi Arabia emerged from the data: incorrect datasets, difficult data collection and storage, poor data analytics, a lack of system interoperability across different HIS for universal access and negative perception of the usefulness of HIS for medical research. Conclusion and implications: Our findings suggest (i) cloud-based HIS would support efficient, reliable and integrated data collection and storage across all hospitals in Saudi Arabia; (ii) EMR data sources should be seamlessly linked to avoid incomplete, fragmented or erroneous EMR in Saudi Arabia; and (iii) collaboration between all hospitals in Saudi Arabia to adopt a uniform standard to support interoperability and improve data exchange and integration is necessary.

GENE2D: A NoSQL Integrated Data Repository of Genetic Disorders Data

“…Also, there is a need for a health informatics framework that facilitates diagnostic workflow and aids in decision-making, enabling information reuse in medical research and public health. To this end, we first investigated the challenges Saudi physicians face in our previous work in relation to the real issues hindering clinical research, such as data provision, integration, and sharing among Saudi hospitals [3]. Our study findings highlighted critical obstacles and unveiled the actual process of conducting clinical research in such a difficult environment.…”

“…In addition, data are a crucial resource for most health and medical research [2]. However, making clinical data available for researchers is a difficult task facing most university teaching hospitals and research centers [3]. This is due to the way the data are captured and used by various health information systems (HISs), which result in data fragmentation and information siloed within different databases and repositories [2].…”

“…The problem of clinical data provision for researchers in medical studies in Saudi Arabia exists at multiple levels. First is the inadequate implementation of the electronic medical record (EMR), a lack of a standard format of data collection, and poor traditional data collection and management methods used for medical research [3,5]. Second is a lack of standards and integration profiles to enable information exchange among healthcare information systems; as the healthcare system in Saudi Arabia is delivered by multiple agencies, governmental and private organizations with different data protection and sharing policies [6].…”

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“…Difficulties in HIS implementation result in many issues within the Saudi health system and affect healthcare professionals in their daily workflow as well as their research contribution due to a lack of quality data. In our previous work, we conducted a mixed-method study to examine and analyze the current state of clinical and genetic data available for medical research in Saudi hospitals, clinics, and research centers [9]. The focus was on identifying the major issues that hindered the exploitation of healthcare data sources such as EMR or EHR for medical research.…”

“…Accordingly, we intend to highlight possible solutions to enhance the role of HIS in medical research in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data collection, data storage, and a lack of system interoperability were the major impediments facing healthcare professionals in managing the data required for their research [9]. The implementation of EMR and EHR is limited to major large-sized hospitals, as small-sized hospitals and clinics do not have adequate computerized systems for routine data collection and management [6].…”