Health information technology, foresight and strategic decision making for Iran: a qualitative study

Given the importance of information technology in the health sector, planning and identifying the prospect and a future road map is important in this area. For this purpose, applying a systematic approach to study the future of health information technology is essential. The key technology is one of the approaches used in the foresight studies and it is conducted by interviewing experts. The aim of this study was to use key technology approach to identify the most important health information technologies for Iran until 2025. This qualitative study was conducted in two phases. The first phase was related to developing a mind map of health information technologies based on the literature review and an expert panel results. In the second phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the 13 experts to identify the key health information technologies for Iran until 2025. In the first phase, content analysis and in the second phase, framework analysis was used to analyze data. According to the results, the main themes were immediate, cheap, stable, and secure access to the maximum health records of the entire population, equitable access to resources and services of the health counter, the development of knowledge management in medical and health sciences, the development of governmental electronic services (backup) in health system, the development of m-health, IT governance in health and the development of national HIT infrastructure. In total, 19 key health information technologies were identified which were related to the main themes. The development of electronic health records, national health information network, data sharing, patient's personal health record (PHR), mhealth, clinical decision support systems and health information technology infrastructure were found to be the most important health information technologies for Iran until 2025. It seems that identifying key health information technologies can help to facilitate strategic and operational planning in this area and help to allocate resources realistically.