Health information governance: a literature review

Abstract

Introduction: In recent years, healthcare organizations have started treating data as a valuable asset as the proper management of data and information could lead to meaningful data use, improve service delivery, reduce risk and the lower cost of healthcare. Trust on the information in the healthcare setting is crucial. Health information governance concepts have been introduced to the health sector to face the new challenges imposed by the changing stakeholder expectations, technology and socio-political environment. The objective of this study was to review the literature to understand the current implementation and practice of health information governance in different countries. Methods: Literature was searched using Google, Google Scholar and PubMed with the combination of keywords “health” and “information governance”. To make the search more comprehensive similar terms such as “medical”, “clinical”, “record” and “data” were used. The search was limited to papers or documents written in English and available free of charge. Information was collected in to five broad categories; definition, scope, principles, laws and regulations, roles and responsibilities.  Results: It was found that there is more the one definition for health information governance. It covered all the aspect of information management from information generation to destruction. Most common principles of IG were; accountability, integrity, protection, compliance, availability, retention, disposition, and transparency. It was found that there were different laws and regulations on data protection, freedom of information, computer misuse and crime, and health and social care related regulations and policies support the implementation of IG. Conclusion: There were many health information governance principles identified by different countries but not all principles were included in the IG frameworks when implementing. There were different laws and regulations support the implementation of IG. Roles and responsibilities were different form one country to another.