The Applications of Data Warehouse in the Field of Health in Iran; Challenges and Solutions

Data and information resources are scattered in health care institutions and health systems and integrated access to them for reporting and analysis is challenging. Application of data warehouse can be a solution to this issue. Thus, this study aimed to investigate data warehouse applications in the field of health, identify its challenges, and provide solutions.
This was a comprehensive and narrative review study. First, the keywords in the field of data warehouse were determined and the extent of the search was limited to the filed of health. Than, the relevant articles were selected from Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Knowledge, and ScienceDirect databases.
Findings: Today, most health care institutions face the challenge of collecting, organizing, and retrieving disparate and bulky data for research, quality improvement, outcome analysis, or best practices determination. The solution to most of these challenges is data warehouse. This technique may resolve many problems in data management and utilization of health system data.
The use of systems such as data warehouse is the main objective of the health system for the prevention of the onset or progression of diseases and improvement of public health. This paper was a first step in creating and using the National Health Data Warehouse, and thus, requires a national approach to address its challenges and solutions.