Development of Hospital-based Data Sets as a Vehicle for Implementation of a National Electronic Health Record

Background: In developing countries such as Iran, international standards offer good sources to survey and use for appropriate planning in the domain of electronic health records (EHRs). Therefore, in this study, HL7 and ASTM standards were considered as the main sources from which to extract EHR data.

Objective: The objective of this study was to propose a hospital data set for a national EHR consisting of data classes and data elements by adjusting data sets extracted from the standards and paper-based records.

Method: This comparative study was carried out in 2017 by studying the contents of the paper-based records approved by the health ministry in Iran and the international ASTM and HL7 standards in order to extract a minimum hospital data set for a national EHR.

Results: As a result of studying the standards and paper-based records, a total of 526 data elements in 174 classes were extracted. An examination of the data indicated that the highest number of extracted data came from the free text elements, both in the paper-based records and in the standards related to the administrative data. The major sources of data extracted from ASTM and HL7 were the E1384 and Hl7V.x standards, respectively. In the paper-based records, data were extracted from 19 forms sporadically.

Discussion: By declaring the confidentiality of information, the ASTM standards acknowledge the issue of confidentiality of information as one of the main challenges of EHR development, and propose new types of admission, such as teleconference, tele-video, and home visit, which are inevitable with the advent of new technology for providing healthcare and treating diseases. Data related to finance and insurance, which were scattered in different categories by three organizations, emerged as the financial category. Documenting the role and responsibility of the provider by adding the authenticator/signature data element was deemed essential.

Conclusion: Not only using well-defined and standardized data, but also adapting EHR systems to the local facilities and the existing social and cultural conditions, will facilitate the development of structured data sets.