A meta-analysis of 154 peer-reviewed studies on health information technology adoption finds an overall positive outcome in the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare.

The analysis, prepared by Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and published in the March 2011 edition of Health Affairs, says that 92 percent of studies demonstrated an overall positive outcome following adoption of some feature of health IT such as electronic health records, clinical decision support systems, e-prescribing, etc.

Specifically, 62 percent of the articles found that health IT was associated with improved healthcare with no negative effects on healthcare, while another 30 percent found an generally positive aspect but also found at least one negative impact. Only 6.5 percent of articles contained overall negative findings, the analysis states.

The articles selected for inclusion in the meta-analysis were published between July 2007 up to February 2010 and were winnowed from an initial pool of 4,193 articles found in the MEDLINE online journal database.

Report authors acknowledge two biases in their analysis. The first is a systematic one: Negative findings aren't published as often as positive ones. The second is that the meta-analysis gives equal weight to all studies, regardless of study design or sample size.

Analysis authors say the studies that demonstrated overall negative outcomes may have done so due to human element considerations such as computer illiteracy, an unrealistic implementation schedule, a lack of leadership, or unwarranted disruptions to workflow.

"The association between the assessment of provider satisfaction and negative findings is a strong one," the analysis states.

"This highlights the importance of strong leadership and staff 'buy-in' if systems are to successfully manage and see benefit from health information technology," it adds.

For more:
- read the meta-analysis

Related Articles:
Study says EHRs don't improve outpatient care 
Two health IT programs crosswise, says GAO 
Selective patient data protection difficult in health IT data exchange