Finding, Appraising and Interpreting the Evidence of Health IT

Evidence-based health informatics can be described as a scientific approach to meeting the multiplicity of tasks involved in the development, implementation and sustainability of health information technologies (IT). The practice of evidence-based health informatics incorporates methods to help find, appraise and utilise research-based knowledge. The aim of this contribution is to describe the steps of finding, appraising and interpreting the evidence of health IT. It lists major sources of literature in the health field, and highlights a number of considerations for undertaking reviews, drawing on some key landmark reviews that have helped to shape the health informatics discipline. It also considers key issues highlighted by these reviews particularly in regard to the validity of findings, their generalisability and their impact on patient outcomes. The contribution also provides suggestions for tackling the challenge of potential publication bias, and how to deal with heterogeneous findings.