Opinions and Attitudes of Health Professionals on the Electronic Health Record: A literature review

Introduction:

A variety of factors shape the positive views and attitudes of health professionals in relation to the Electronic Health Record (EHR) as an application of eHealth in health systems internationally.

Aim: The investigation of the factors that shape positive or negative views and attitudes in health professionals regarding the use of EHR.

Materials and Methodology: A systematic review of the literature was conducted from 2002 to 2020 in the Greek and English languages, in the databases: Cinahl Database | EBSCO, Google Scholar, Library and Information Science - Elsevier, PubMed and Scopus. The search strategy for bibliographic databases in English or Greek included the use of keywords such as: ((“electronic health record” OR “EHR”) AND (“health professional” OR "Opinion" OR "attitude")). During the review, various sub-selection criteria of the studies were used.

Results: Out of a total of published studies, 71 met the inclusion criteria. The results showed that various factors form positive or negative views and attitudes in health professionals about the use of EHR. In both cases, they are grouped into distinct topics related to the work of health professionals, health data and information, and patient care.

Conclusions: The successful implementation of EHR as an eHealth technological innovation requires coordinated action by health policy makers. In any case, the design and implementation of the HER system must incorporate the opinions and perspectives of health professionals. 

Keywords: Electronic Health Record, Health professional, opinion, attitude