Journal:Definitions, components and processes of data harmonization in healthcare: A scoping review
| Full article title | Definitions, components and processes of data harmonization in healthcare: A scoping review |
|---|---|
| Journal | BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making |
| Author(s) | Schmidt, Bey-Marrié; Colvin, Christopher J.; Hohlfeld, Ameer; Leon, Natalie |
| Author affiliation(s) | South African Medical Research Council, University of Cape Town, University of Virginia, Brown University |
| Primary contact | Online contact form |
| Year published | 2020 |
| Volume and issue | 20 |
| Page(s) | 222 |
| DOI | 10.1186/s12911-020-01218-7 |
| ISSN | 1472-6947 |
| Distribution license | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Website | https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12911-020-01218-7 |
| Download | https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12911-020-01218-7 (PDF) |
 |
This article should be considered a work in progress and incomplete. Consider this article incomplete until this notice is removed. |
Abstract
Background: Data harmonization (DH) has is increasingly being used by health managers, information technology specialists, and researchers as an important intervention for routine health information systems (RHISs). It is important to understand what DH is, how it is defined and conceptualized, and how it can lead to better health management decision-making. This scoping review identifies a range of definitions for DH, its characteristics (in terms of key components and processes), and common explanations of the relationship between DH and health management decision-making.
Methods: This scoping review identified more than 2,000 relevant studies (date filter) written in English and published in PubMed, Web of Science, and CINAHL. Two reviewers independently screened records for potential inclusion for the abstract and full-text screening stages. One reviewer did the data extraction, analysis, and synthesis, with built-in reliability checks from the rest of the team. We developed a narrative synthesis of definitions and explanations of the relationship between DH and health management decision-making.
Results: Of the 181 studies ultimately included in this scoping review, 61 included synthesis definitions and concepts of DH in detail. From these, we identified six common terms for data harmonization: "record linkage," "data linkage," "data warehousing," "data sharing, "data interoperability, and "health information exchange." We also identified nine key components or characteristics of data harmonization: it involves (a) multi-step processes; (b) integration and harmonization of different databases; (c) the use of two or more databases; (d) the use of electronic data; (e) pooling of data using unique patient identifiers; (f) different types of data; (g) data found within and across different departments and institutions at facility, district, regional, and national levels; (h) different types of technical activities; and (i) a specific scope. The relationship between DH and health management decision-making is not well-described in the literature. Several studies mentioned health providers’ concerns about data completeness, data quality, terminology, and coding of data elements as barriers to data use for clinical decision-making.
Conclusion: To our knowledge, this scoping review was the first to synthesize definitions and concepts of DH and address the causal relationship between DH and health management decision-making. Future research is required to assess the effectiveness of data harmonization on health management decision-making.
Keywords: data harmonization, health information exchange, health information system, scoping review
Background
References
Notes
This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation. In some cases important information was missing from the references, and that information was added.
