Abstract
Electronic health records provide a valuable resource to improve health evaluation, surveillance and informs effective clinical decision making. Although electronic medical records (EMR) are introduced in many different settings, yet little is known about the readiness, effectiveness and progress of a centralized information system like NUMR across United Arab Emirates. This study aims to determine the readiness for national unified medical record (NUMR), barriers and challenges from the point of views of experts working in the field of health informatics on daily basis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 experts using purposive sampling method from different healthcare organizations in the United Arab Emirates. Perceptions of interviewees regarding the readiness for national unified medical record were elicited. Thematic analysis was used to identify the different themes extracted from the interview transcripts. Overall, seven themes emerged after analyzing the transcripts obtained from the respondents. This study is expected to bring countless benefits for all countries that are moving forward toward nationwide and interoperable healthcare platforms. The support for NUMR will make a significant contribution to the health systems across UAE that will ultimately lead to safety, access to single shared records, improved care and coordination, better clinical and decision making, faster engagement, easy and secure access, safety and will save time for other tasks. The future of implementation of NUMR in UAE is promising. Our findings offer beneficial guidelines for consideration in implementing NUMR system across UAE and also helps in the drive to improve healthcare systems nationally.
Highlights
With the advancement in the information communication technologies, field of interoperability, and health data exchange in the past era, several systems were implemented across different healthcare institutions with improved decision making, communication and data management to improve the healthcare services [1]
12 questions were developed which mainly covered information about the readiness for National Unified Medical Record (NUMR) across UAE along with the standards and methodology currently being followed towards establishing NUMR to support the provision of high-quality healthcare
We interviewed experts from different healthcare organizations regarding the readiness for National Unified Medical Record (NUMR) across UAE along with the standards and methodology currently being followed towards establishing NUMR to support the provision of high-quality healthcare (Table 1)
Summary
With the advancement in the information communication technologies, field of interoperability, and health data exchange in the past era, several systems were implemented across different healthcare institutions with improved decision making, communication and data management to improve the healthcare services [1]. Federal Law No 2 of 2019 issued by UAE federal government on the utilization of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in healthcare field aims to introduce the establishment of central system to regulate the collection, processing, and transfer of electronic health data originating in the UAE Such a system if implemented is expected to improve the quality of healthcare by means of reducing medical errors, improve work flow, increase revenue, minimize treatment cost and time, bring improvement in the care of patients by forming a better linkage for all care givers, limiting the need for workers, supplies and space for filing or retrieval of medical records [2].
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